Quote · Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth
2890: Speed Training for Athletes | How to Sprint Faster Without Getting Hurt w/ Brian Kula
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Recovery tools — force plates, fly tens and structured periodization
At 27:02 · chapter starts 20:28
Asked how he determines recovery readiness, Kula begins by acknowledging that after 30 years, he has internalized a strong intuitive sense of training load and recovery timelines — but he backs that intuition with data. [1] — Brian Kula "Rather than relying on how athletes feel — because elite athletes never think they're tired — Kula uses force plate counter-movement jumps …" 19:35 Force plate counter-movement jumps give him a quick, objective readout of neuromuscular status that can be done near-daily, though he cautions that frequency can cause athletes to stop taking it seriously. Fly-ten tests — a 20-yard build with a timed 10-yard fly-through — tell him where an athlete's maximum velocity is on any given day, and that number guides what the session should look like. He mentions grip strength as another accessible proxy for overall readiness, drawing a parallel to how Mind Pump coaches use it with regular clients. Whoop data, particularly sleep tracking, added another layer when he used it with academy athletes, though he notes the frustrating gap between what the data recommends and what sport schedules actually allow. The deeper point Kula makes is about the nature of elite athletes: they never feel tired, always want to go full tilt, and will talk themselves into more work than is wise. His solution is a rigid 4-week undulating block — light, medium, heavy, then back down — that removes the question of how much to do from the athlete's subjective perception entirely. This mirrors the Soviet periodization approach he admires, where the schedule is the schedule regardless of athlete sentiment.
The biggest problem training elite athletes isn't motivation — it's getting them to rest. Kula uses Charlie Francis's high-low periodization model, alternating intense neural days with lighter recovery days, and strictly follows planned deload weeks regardless of how athletes feel.
Kula's top strength exercises for speed development are trap bar deadlift, box squat (with velocity focus), and overcoming isometric split squats.
Trap bar deadlift, box squat with velocity focus, and overcoming isometric split squats are Kula's top three strength exercises for speed — and he uses them the same way for youth and elite athletes. The trap bar deadlift alone touches 7 muscle groups and mimics the pushing forces of sprinting.
