Ian King

Meet stretching – before it becomes extinct

/by

When I stayed at Mammoth Mountain in California for the first time in the 1990s with a Canadian national team for a training camp three things stood out to me about the venue. First that it was warm enough almost for t-shirt but yet there was snow. Secondly, that you could ski and surf in the same day such was the proximity of these slopes to the beach. And thirdly, the bronze monument of the Mammoth.

I was intrigued by the beauty of an animal that no longer existed in that region.  Like many animals, they had become extinct. Based on the rate of suppression and decline in take up rate post the mid-1990s, I suggest flexibility training or stretching as it is often called is at risk of the same fate – extinction.

Here’s a bit of history from my observations over the last half a century to support this concern.

The 1970s

The 1970s was big decade for stretching. The American physical educator Bob Anderson and his wife Jean self-published their first edition of the book titled Stretching. It was a small spiral bound edition, full of great guidance and driven by what I believe was a genuine intent to serve the world. It was picked up by more established publishing houses in 1980 and this helped spread the world globally.

Personally, it was where my stretching journey began:

My personal history in stretching goes back to the 1970s, in my high school years. During track and field amongst other sports I was exposed to stretching. I do not recall any negative connotations or concerns in that decade towards stretching or flexibility training. I suspect doing stretches would not have turned anyone’s head in that decade. [1]

I was the product of the 1970s, and I was the product of track and field and martial arts, both of which were sports leaders in the embracement of flexibility. So, I had a reasonably high level of personal involvement, commitment and competence in this physical quality. [2]

In the late 1970s my exposure to martial arts also began, and stretching was integral to that sport in that era.

I sum-up the 1970s approach to stretching in this way –

You did it or you didn’t do it – no-one cared

I liked the days in the 70s when no one really cared, no one even talked about it; we just did it, and no one had an opinion on that; they did or you didn’t do it. And since then, every decade, we’ve gone through a new reason why not. [3]

The 1980s

The impact of iconic books such as the Anderson’s Stretching book grew during the 1980s thanks to broader publication and distribution channels.  Stretching was simply part of what so many sports did.

In the 1980s during university, I participated in a variety of sports, some of which – such as martial arts – promoted flexibility training as paramount. [4]

I feel it’s reasonable to say that stretching was gaining momentum on the upside during the 1980s.

I took this value into my competitive training and competing in other sports in the second half of the 1980s – competitive powerlifting and weightlifting, rugby union etc. I noticed people looked, some asked questions, but no-one really cared. [5]

The other factor that in hindsight stands out to me about this decade was the lack of resistance.  I was gaining traction as a coach and consultant in strength training – and my approach was to take stretching along for the ride as a non-negotiable partner to my strength training services.  And I had zero push-back.

I was further unique, in that I chose to bring flexibility training along with strength training. From the early1980s, I would not provide strength training – either in program design or in supervision of training – without concurrent flexibility training. That was my starting point. Length and strength. [6]

I was doing it with athletes in all sports. I was doing it with up to 20 different sports at the elite level during the late 80s and 90s. And no one really objected to it. No one said anything. No one complained. The coaches probably struggled a little bit because I was eating into their time, and that’s a story in itself. But, in essence, my conclusions were shaped by the athlete’s response, their performance and injury prevention response to my application. And I formed a number of hypotheses during the late 80s, in particular, about the relationship between stretching and injury prevention.  

And I implemented them, and I studied the results, you know, in the real-world laboratory sense, in particular throughout the early 90s, when I gained a lot more control in the training process. [7]

To reiterate – I was hired to provide strength training and I gave that, and stretching, as a pair of services. The latter was not asked for, but no-one said no or objected. Quite the contrary – what I was doing in stretching was often received as more unique.

I sum-up the 1980s approach to stretching in this way –

No-one gave a rat’s ass

When I was teaching stretching in the 80s, … no one gave a rat’s ass. No one really cared. [8]

The 1980s built on the ambivalence of the 1970s towards stretching with an increased involvement in the training method.

The 1990s

The 1990s began where the 1980s had left off, and for the first half of that decade my approach of bringing stretching along for the ride did not experience any pushback.

And by the mid-90s, I formed an incredibly effective approach to flexibility, and I formed, by then, the solid belief that flexibility is the most important physical quality, and the physical quality that will have more impact upon all other physical qualities, and also on the quality of life going forwards. [9]

And then, by around 1995, I sensed a change, a new negativity to stretching.

And after 15 years of doing it, by the mid-90s, something had happened. What was that?  Suddenly I learned of a new theory.  Stretching was bad. [10] 

The 2000s

By the turn of the century this anti-stretching sentiment had momentum.

By the late 1990s/early 2000’s the stretching paradigm was that static stretching had an acute (short-term) impact of reducing your strength, so if you want to do it, only do it afterward the workout.  This paradigm suggested more dynamic or PNF (i.e. proprio-neuromuscular facilitation, a special mix of static and dynamic stretching) type stretching should be done before the workout, but again only short duration holds were apparently needed. [11]

What were the proposed reasons for the shift against stretching?

I noted three stages of negativity against stretching during the last half of a century.

The first was pushing back on the increased support for stretching being a way of reducing injuries.

My first exposure to negativity to stretching was in the late 1980s. This resistance to stretching was in the form of ‘stretching has not been proven to prevent injuries’. Essentially it was based on short-term studies suggesting that groups that stretched did not have a lower incidence of acute injuries than groups that did not stretch. This completely overlooked the long-term impact of stretching and its role in preventing use or chronic injuries.

It was not what I would call a strong pushback, and it failed to gain a lot of momentum.  You could say this reason to stretch is still hanging around in the background. [12]

The second reason that was subsequently proposed was that stretching created a risk of injuries through hypermobility.

In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s I witnessed the rise of a paradigm that suggested you shouldn’t stretch too much because if you got too flexible, you would be injury prone i.e. your increased flexibility would result in a higher incidence or chance of being injured.  [13]

And the third reason that was subsequently proposed – and I conclude the first two were not achieving the goals of suppressing stretching – was that stretching (especially pre-training stretching) made you ‘weak’.

By the late 1990s/early 2000’s the stretching paradigm was that static stretching had an acute (short-term) impact of reducing your strength, so if you want to do it, only do it afterward the workout.  This paradigm suggested more dynamic or PNF (i.e. proprio-neuromuscular facilitation, a special mix of static and dynamic stretching) type stretching should be done before the workout, but again only short duration holds were apparently needed. [14]

What do I think was the real reason behind this shift against stretching?

Quite simply, I believe the rise in popularity of stretching through the last three decades of the 20th century presented a problem to some, to which they found a solution – crush it. After all, it worked for the car industry to slow the emergence of electric cars![15]

In the 60s when I was training, nobody really did it. In the 70s when I started doing it in high school, no one really cared. In the early 80s when I was doing it in a professional training environment, people would ask, oh that’s interesting. No one really cared. Guess what? When it became so popular and the sports scientists decided that they needed to exert their influence to control the situation, what was the first thing they said? You can’t do it until we decide why you want to do it. And they’re still deciding. [16]

I suggest that as stretching gained in support throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s alarm bells were ringing. The attitude of ‘we will prove it wrong until we approve it’ was evident from academia.

In the late 1980s I took my professional skills to North America. I noticed that my commitment to stretching was significantly more than what my Canadian and American counterparts were doing.[17]

I sensed a feeling of resentment at the practitioner level that athletes were getting exposed to the benefits of stretching at time when strength / strength and conditioning cohort had no personal or professional knowledge of, belief in and skills of stretching.

So, what was happening on the coach front? At least one-third of the successfully self-marketed ‘strength coaches’ in the US market do not train at all.  However, 100% of them do not stretch, have never stretched, and would be made a fool of if the interest in and demand for stretching was to continue to rise as it was in the early 1990s. [18]

Many if not all of my colleagues have never stretched, cannot touch their toes, and therefore from an ego protection perspective the last thing they will allow is the rise of a training value that makes them look bad.[19]

This was where I felt the resistance first.

At a second level, and a few years later, the academics were what I suggest recruited to stem the tide of interest in stretching.

The academics had the power of ‘science’. If it was published in a peer-reviewed article, it carried more clout.  Despite this the practitioners who typically recruited ‘science’ to show they were ‘cutting edge’ (I coined the term ‘pracdemics’ for this)[20] did their best to support the cause to suppress stretching.

These are some of my favourites…

If you took rubber bands out of the freezer and prepared to use them by stretching them, what do you think would happen? You would easily break quite a few. This is why athletes frequently pull muscles…[21]

…wild animals don’t do static stretching–they do long, slow-moving stretches, or even explosive bounding movements that form an integral part of all of their lives. “And the stretch is not a relaxed stretch; it’s done with a lot of tension. That’s an important point because we are often told to stretch only relaxed muscles. Look at the stretch of a cat, how it stretches up to its maximum with tension, according to what feels right. This type of active intuitive stretching equips you to cope better with strenuous exercise.[22]

…stretching the joints and the fascia is like stretching out your favorite sweater… once you have done that it will never hang the same.” [23]

So, what is really going on?

I’ve been talking about the suppression of stretching over the last 25 plus years, with the ‘C’ work – conspiracy – in the message.

In the 1990s:

There is also the underlying effect of a western world sport’s medicine philosophy that has historically paid more attention to injury rehabilitation than injury prevention… Or is there a tendency to reinforce frequent and long-term injury treatment patterns?[24]

In the 2000s:

Now, I know I’m being a little bit of a, truly am being a bit of a theorist here on the conspiracy aspect, but that’s reality. How many people want to make themselves redundant?[26]

Allow me to let you into a little secret and share the  conspiracy theory side of myself – do you think the massive medical/therapy industry really want you to learn how to avoid injuries Yes, I am a bit of a conspiracy theorist! [27] [28]

In the 2010s:

It’s really been a great example for people of what I call the conspiracy of stretching. And I’ve made that statement now since the late 90s. I started a bit tongue-in-cheek, but now I’m quite serious, where people who want to be in control, and coaches who can’t touch their toes, are saying, ‘well, geez, the movement is getting stronger.’ I better delay this until I work it out.[29]

Now, I don’t mean to come across like a conspiracy theory, but… There are reasons why in the last 10 years, last 10, 15 years, there’s been more negativities written about flexibility than there was in the prior 50. [30]

And still, in the 2020s:

Post 1995 pre-training static stretching became vilified, i.e. there were concerted efforts to discourage your pre-training sessions. You can learn what I think is the reasons behind this in my 2nd Edition Legacy book. [31]

Where is this all going?

In the late 1990s I felt the rise of consumer interest in stretching would result in stretching being the dominant ‘new training focus’ of the first decade of the new millennium. 

Will the first decade of the next century be known for the popularity of flexibility research? [32]

In both, the role and potential contribution of flexibility is poorly understood in general and therefore is no surprise that this quality has not been exploited in training.  I predict that these matters will be for most, the ‘discovery of the decade’ at some stage between the years 2000 and 2010.[33] [34]

I was wrong.

As 2010 arrived I put my hand up for an inaccurate prediction and became disillusioned with the prospects.

Now, I wrote in 1997 that flexibility was, in my opinion, the last frontier of physical training. But by the year 2010, I’m sure it would have been embraced. Well, 2010, as I’ve said before, is about to happen. And flexibility training has gone nowhere but around in circles and been attached to so many negative labels. [35]

I also tried kicking the can down the road.

.So, yeah, I don’t know, 10 years? I’ll put it back. I’ve got to write something about that. Put it back by 10.[36]

 Perhaps it will be so in the decade 2010 to 2020?  There are some signs that the ‘trend-spotters’ – those who watch for trends and start teaching them early in the acceptance phase to position themselves as the leaders and teachers of the new trend (and to allow them to create new educational material to sell to the masses) – are on the move in relation to flexibility i.e. they have gone from making fun of flexibility to now promoting their DVDs on how to do it, especially the once mocked static stretching.[37]

So, when 2020 came along I became less optimistic, conceding that the deserved rise of stretching to the recognition it deserved might not happen in my lifetime.

I say now that I don’t think in my lifetime that flexibility will be given the credibility that it deserves. [38]

Why do I talk about the possibility of extinction?

On my estimates the 2000s was going to be the decade of recognition of stretching, in the way aerobic training was in the 1980s and strength training was in the 1990s. [39]

You could call the eighties the decade of researching aerobic training, and nineties the era of popularity in researching strength. [40]

It was deserved. But it didn’t happen. In fact, the reverse happened. Two subsequent decades have past – the 2010’s and the 2020’s – and the movement to vilify stretching has gained momentum. And I give them respect for this effort, even if I don’t believe it is in humanities interests.

That’s now three decades or thirty (30) years of suppression.

Let’s talk about the game plan, including the implications.

I want to share an analogy I have learnt from listening first-hand to arguably one of the most imposing No. 8’s to play rugby for Australia, Mark Loane, talk about what he learnt from his time playing rugby in South Africa for the Natal province in 1980 the historic game plan of South African rugby – to metaphorically ‘strangle’ or the tight head prop as a means to ‘kill-off’ the opposition resistance and game plan. Now you could say that is a common rugby tactic, but I do not believe any other rugby nation has embraced or embedded this philosophy in their psyche as much as South Africa.

I see a similarity with stretching. If the vested interests can ‘strangle’ stretching, it will ‘die off’, give up, go away, become extinct. And how long will this take?

To answer that question, I share a way of viewing this, by dividing entrants to sports or strength training by their era and matching their exposure to stretching.

Table 1 – The period of entry into sport/fitness/strength training matched with the association with or exposure to stretching

The period of entry into sports / fitness/ strength training

Their association with/exposure to stretching (flexibility training)
1980-2000 Witnessed &/or experienced stretching
2000 – 2020 Heard about stretching
2020 – 2040 Did no see or hear about stretching

The 1980- 2000s cohort – Witnessed &/or experienced stretching

From speaking to a growing number of individuals whose entry into sport, fitness or strength training was in the 1980-2000 period, a pattern has emerged. They for the most part had engagement in stretching prior to 2000, however at or around 2000 when the dominant paradigms shifted against stretching, they stopped stretching.

Some found their way back. Many didn’t. Most, I suggest. I would also venture to say their injury incidence increased post being discouraged from stretching.

Here is a great example of this pattern, in a case study of an individual who found their way back to stretching.

Hi Mr. King.  After reading the Legacy book Vol 2. book here is my review. The content of the book is excellent and  in few moments eye opening.  As you know I already use your concepts in my training so I can testify that they really do work. 

I support your emphasis on flexibility and static stretching because when I started to stretch the Ian King way my health really improved. Ironically, when I started to train almost 30 years ago, I did stretch. I did stretch a lot. My early influences were books by Bob Anderson, Bill Pearl’s ‘Getting stronger’, Tudor Bumpa’s ‘Periodization’, the first edition of the NSCA`s Essentials. They all emphasized static stretching, so I stretched. I never had any overuse injuries at that time.

In the early 2000’s things started to change. I came across Functional guru (Boston guy),  he said that static stretching is bad. Big names like Bompa, Siff, Kurz also started to attack static stretching in warmups. NSCA changed their position on static stretching, so I embraced dynamic and ballistic ‘stretching’.

You guessed it, my body became full of tendinitis’s, trigger points, pain. I lived in agony for few years until I read GBII (those concepts are also  in Legacy book).  Static stretching in warm up phase plus few weekly sessions helped me to restore my health. Static stretching rules!–Hans.[41]

The 2000- 2020s cohort – Only heard about stretching

These individuals began their teenager and or adult training in the period between 2000 and 2020. They did not experience the period of increased involvement and embracing of stretching.  They did however have the opportunity to have heard about it.

Therefore, they have no first-hand experience of a world where stretching was embraced. Instead, they rely on the indigenous tradition of passing on lessons verbally from person to person, as their only source of exposure.

Now whilst this method of passing on knowledge was effective in earlier ages, I suggest it is less effective when it is competing with conflicting values and the power of the written word decrying stretching.

Therefore, power of stretching is diluted for this cohort, who have no first-hand knowledge of the prior more favorable to stretching times. Unless of course they fake it, however I suggest this is not a sustainable or effective long-term strategy.

The following is an example of this.

Original publications

‘Other’ – 2024
So, over the last twenty years all I have seen are reasons why you shouldn’t stretch!  [42]

In the 70s when I started doing it in high school, no one really cared. [43] 

I liked the days in the 70s when no one really cared. [44]

In the 1970s and 1980s athletes stretched and no-one cared. [45]

Move forward to the 1980s, and there I was, stretching happily, endlessly, in the gym, as a competitive powerlifter. And no one cared. [46]

If you trained in the 1980s and you were stretching and someone walked past you…They couldn’t give a rat’s ass. [47]

When I was teaching stretching in the 80s, … no one gave a rat’s ass. No one really cared. [48]

 I think the biggest thing with that whole paradigm is that 20 years ago, no one used to give a fuck if someone was lying in the corner doing stretching. [49]

 

 

Theres a few ‘problems’ with this account over and above the fact that by 2004, the world had moved away from stretching for a decade….

Apart from the obvious paraphrasing of a very familiar statement, this ‘coach’ was about 8 years old in 2004. Are we to believe they formed a professional judgement about the treatment of flexibility training in commercial training areas at the age of 8 years old?[50]

Quite simply, this cohort was denied first-hand experience of a world which embraced stretching. Individuals faking their life experiences is not going to overcome this reality, rather this lack of integrity is not helping stretching’s cause.

The 2020-2040s cohort – Did not witness/experience or hear about stretching

These individuals beginning their teenager and or adult training in the period between 2020 and 2040 will neither . They did not experience the period of increased involvement and embracing of stretching.  They are also unlikely to have the opportunity to have heard about it.

We are now in this period. I suggest that if the suppression of stretching can be effectively maintained, then towards the end of this time frame – which is only a little over decade away – stretching will be a relic from a past age, on the verge of and facing extinction.

Conclusion

I have come to accept that stretching as a mainstream acceptable training method may never return. At least not in the form that I believe it is most effective – pre-training static stretching.

On the contrary stretching may become extinct.

Why do I say that? Because I believe that decision lays with individuals and groups with vested interests.

You will only be ‘allowed’ to stretch WHEN two things occur:

  1. The equipment manufacturers and distributors have worked out how to profit from the training method; and
  2. When the dominant ‘gurus’ have worked out enough about stretching to make out they are experts! [51]

And they may never give it the green light to come back.

Which will be a real shame, in my opinion, for the masses.

And by the mid-90s, I formed an incredibly effective approach to flexibility, and I formed, by then, the solid belief that flexibility is the most important physical quality, and the physical quality that will have more impact upon all other physical qualities, and also on the quality of life going forwards. [52]

Rather than completely wave the white flag I have recently prepared a document to support you getting to know stretching – before it becomes extinct.  It provides a low-bar time commitment to foster more individuals giving it a go, supported by additional information about stretching.

The title recognizes an early attempt to encourage the world to stretch, published in 2000 and again in 2002 [53] – The Lazy Man’s Guide to Stretching.

I encourage you to visit stretching before it becomes extinct!

 

References

[1] King, I., 2011, Stretching debate, I Form, Magazine, Feb 2011

[2] King, I., 2019, How did you develop your approach to flexibility, Off the Record #50, 31 July 2019

[3] King, I., 2010, Legacy Seminar, Gold Coast AUS, 26 April 2010

[4] King, I., 2011, Stretching debate, I Form, Magazine, Feb 2011

[5] King, I., 2011, Stretching debate, I Form, Magazine, Feb 2011

[6] King, I., 2026, Get Buffed! V – Get Optimally Buffed! Ch 5 – Pillar 3: Stability

[7] King, I., 2012, KSI Coaching Program Level 2 Foundations, Unit 4 – Theory of flexibility development, (Video) 17 May 2012

[8] King, I., 2011, How to Write Seminar Series – Pt 1 – How do I ensure balance in my strength training to prevent injuries? Nerang Qld Aust., Sun 15th May 2011

[9] King, I., 2012, KSI Coaching Program Level 2 Foundations, Unit 4 – Theory of flexibility development, (Video) 17 May 2012

[10] King, I., 2010, Barbells & Bullshit, Pt 3 of 10 – Flexibility an example of influence on physical qualities, DVD/Audio Series

[11] King, I., 2002, Get Buffed! II – Get More Buffed! Ch. 8 – The stretch – a performance advantage!

[12] King, I., 2026, The Lazy Man’s Guide to Stretching, Ch. 7 – The flawed excuses not to stretch

[13] King, I., 2002, Get Buffed! II – Get More Buffed! Ch. 8 – The stretch – a performance advantage!

[14] King, I., 2002, Get Buffed! II – Get More Buffed! Ch. 8 – The stretch – a performance advantage!

[15] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_EV1

[16] King, I., 2011, Flexibility – You can’t do it until we decide, YouTube

[17] King, I., 2026, The Lazy Man’s Guide to Stretching, Ch. 1- My stretching journey

[18] King, I., 2018, KSI Coaching Program L0 Orientation Course, Unit 5 – What flexibility training should I do with my clients?

[19] King, I., 2019, How did you develop your approach to flexibility, Off the Record #50, 31 July 2019

[20] King, I., 2010, Barbells & Bullshit, King Sports International (Book)

[21] Boyle, M., 2004, Functional training for sport, p. 29-30

[22] Goss, K., 1999, Weight Training Secrets from Darkest Africa, draft submitted to the ASCA for publication

[23] Forum thread, 2003, Ian King’s stance on stretching, t-mag.com, from 31 May 2003 (Other)

[24] King, I., 1997, Winning & Losing, p. 26

[25] King, I., 2000, Injury Prevention and Rehabilitation Series. (DVD)

[26] King, I., 2000, Injury Prevention and Rehabilitation Series. (DVD)

[27] King, I., 2000, Heavy Metal Q and A with the King of Strength Coaches, t-mag.com – Issue 133 Dec 1, 2000

[28] King, I., 2003, Ask the Master, p. 87

[29] King, I., 2011, KSI Coaching Program L1 Legacy Course, Unit 11 – Flexibility (Video/Audio)

[30] King, I., 2012, Ian King Live in London, 29 Feb 2012

[31] King, I., 2025, Legacy – Ian King’s training innovations, Vol. 1 – Injury prevention & Performance enhancement, Theory #27 – It’s a conspiracy

[32] King, I., 1997, Winning & Losing, p. 113

[33] King, I., 1999, Foundations of Physical Preparation (course)

[34] King, I., 2000, Foundations of Physical Preparation (book), p. 50

[35] King, I., 2010, Barbells and Bullshit – Challenging your thinking, Pt 3 of 10 – Flexibility an example of influence on other qualities (Video/Audio)

[36] King, I., 2010, Legacy Tour Seminar – Predicting the tipping point in stretching, Gold Coast, Sunday 25 April 2010

[37] King, I., 2011, KSI Coaching Program, Level 1 – Legacy, Unit 1 – History of physical preparation

[38] King, I., 2010, Barbells & Bullshit, Pt 3 of 10 – Flexibility an example of influence on physical qualities, DVD/Audio Series

[39] King, I., 2025, Legacy, 2nd Edi. Volume 1 – Injury prevention and performance enhancement, Theory #22 – The dominant focus buy decade

[40] King, I., 1997, Winning & Losing (Book), p. 113

[41] Personal communication, Hans to Ian King, Email dated 25 January 2026

[42] King, I., 2002, Get Buffed! II – Get More Buffed! Ch. 8 – The stretch – a performance advantage!

[43] King, I., 2011, Flexibility – You can’t do it until we decide, YouTube

[44] King, I., 2010, Legacy Seminar, Gold Coast AUS, 26 April 2010

[45] King, I., 2011, KSI Coaching Program L1 Legacy Course, Ch. 34- Concerns for the world of physical preparation

[46] King, I., 2010, Barbells & Bullshit, Pt 3 of 10: Flexibility – An example of influence on physical qualities

[47] King, I., 2012, Ian King Live in London, 29 Feb 2012

[48] King, I., 2011, How to Write Seminar Series – Pt 1 – How do I ensure balance in my strength training to prevent injuries? Nerang Qld Aust., Sun 15th May 2011

[49]  Reference withheld to protect the message

[50] King, I., 2026, Legacy, 2nd Ed., Volume 2 – Flexibility and Strength, Theory #211 –

Our profession relies on you NOT fact checking

[51] King, I., 2018, KSI Coaching Program L0 Orientation Course, Unit 5 – What flexibility training should I do with my clients?

[52] King, I., 2012, KSI Coaching Program Level 2 Foundations, Unit 4 – Theory of flexibility development, (Video) 17 May 2012

[53] King, I., 2002, The lazy man’s guide to stretching, t-mag.com, 28 Jun 2002. (Article)

 

Ian King

The stretching journey – Pt 1: My journey

/by

In this new millennium, at the start of this 21 Century AD, the physical quality of flexibility and the training method to achieve it is without doubt the most vilified physical quality, potentially  on the verge of extinction.  The aim of this article series is to explore how we arrived at this point.  Part 1 is dedicated to understanding how I reached my conclusions about stretching.  In doing this, I share the following:

  • My personal stretching journey
  • My professional stretching journey
  • My publishing stretching journey

My personal stretching journey

In the 1960 my first strength training coach in my home country Papua New Guinea, the late Iwila Jacobs[1], did not teach me stretching. It’s fair to say that stretching has not played a big part in most people’s interpretation of bodybuilding. To put it another way, no magazine space was wasted on pictures of bodybuilders stretching.

In the early 1970s, upon arriving in Australia for high school I took up track and field as a sport. This was my first exposure to stretching.

My personal history in stretching goes back to the 1970s, in my high school years. During track and field amongst other sports I was exposed to stretching. I do not recall any negative connotations or concerns in that decade towards stretching or flexibility training. I suspect doing stretches would not have turned anyone’s head in that decade. [2]

I was to learn later that this is a sport that has a long history of commitment to stretching. Or like too many sports, it did before the world turned.

I liked the days in the 70s when no one really cared, no one even talked about it; we just did it, and no one had an opinion on that; they did or you didn’t do it. And since then, every decade, we’ve gone through a new reason why not. [3]

In the late 1970s I took up the Korean martial art Tae Kwon Do, under a Rhee family from South Korea. And it was there that my stretching was taken to another level. Again, this may have changed since the world turned, but during my time in that and other martial arts, stretching was just what you did.

In the 1980s during university, I participated in a variety of sports, some of which – such as martial arts – promoted flexibility training as paramount. [4]

After arriving at university in Australia in 1980 I had access to the best strength training environment I had been exposed to in my short life. And I grabbed that opportunity with both hands so to speak.

I was the product of the 1970s, and I was the product of track and field and martial arts, both of which were sports leaders in the embracement of flexibility. So, I had a reasonably high level of personal involvement, commitment and competence in this physical quality. [5]

However, I didn’t leave behind what track and field, and martial arts had exposed me to. I took it forward and for me, personally, stretching then strength training was how I did it.

I took this value into my competitive training and competing in other sports in the second half of the 1980s – competitive powerlifting and weightlifting, rugby union etc. I noticed people, looked, some asked questions, but no-one really cared. [6]

It was no different than say my Tae Kwon Do training. We would warm up, then stretch, then train.

If you trained in the 1980s and you were stretching and someone walked past you, they wouldn’t even know you were stretching. They were oblivious to us stretching. They couldn’t give a rat’s ass. [7]

It was quite a sight. I would be lying on the ground out of the way in the strength training facility stretching. It was just what I did. No one else I have met in strength training had my level of commitment. Most weightlifters and powerlifters, even some bodybuilders, did stretch in that decade. But if they didn’t, they were not passing judgement or comment on what I was doing.

Move forward to the 1980s, and there I was, stretching happily, endlessly, in the gym, as a competitive powerlifter. And no one cared. There were other athletes around doing their own thing, and no one cared. I would read the academic textbooks about flexibility. The recommendations were very simple and non-controversial.  There was no mixed message. You did it, you didn’t do it, no one cares. [8]

My professional journey

When I started training others in the early 1980s, I brought stretching along with strength training.

I was further unique, in that I chose to bring flexibility training along with strength training. From the early 1980s, I would not provide strength training – either in program design or in supervision of training – without concurrent flexibility training. That was my starting point. Length and strength. [9]

And no-one cared, no one noticed, no one pushed back. I was introducing at the same time two things that most athletes in Australia in the 1980s and 1990s had not done before – including professional athletes’- serious strength training and serious stretching.

When I was teaching stretching in the 80s, … no one gave a rat’s ass. No one really cared. [10]

I was doing it with athletes in all sports. I was doing it with up to 20 different sports at the elite level during the late 80s and 90s. And no one really objected to it. No one said anything. No one complained. The coaches probably struggled a little bit because I was eating into their time, and that’s a story in itself. But, in essence, my conclusions were shaped by the athlete’s response, their performance and injury prevention response to my application. And I formed a number of hypotheses during the late 80s, in particular, about the relationship between stretching and injury prevention. And I implemented them, and I studied the results, you know, in the real-world laboratory sense, in particular throughout the early 90s, when I gained a lot more control in the training process.

And by the mid-90s, I formed an incredibly effective approach to flexibility, and I formed, by then, the solid belief that flexibility is the most important physical quality, and the physical quality that will have more impact upon all other physical qualities, and also on the quality of life going forwards. [11]

In the late 1980s I took my professional skills to North America. I noticed that my commitment to stretching was significantly more than what my Canadian and American counterparts were doing.

In the environments where I was collaborating in a hands-on sense, I noticed this was somewhat uncomfortable for my colleagues, but I didn’t understand why. After all, wasn’t what I was offering superior and best for the athletes.  For the first time I noticed pushback.

In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s I witnessed the rise of a paradigm that suggested you shouldn’t stretch too much because if you got too flexible, you would be injury prone i.e. your increased flexibility would result in a higher incidence or chance of being injured.  [12]

In the second half of the 1990s this negatively had spread back to Australia. As an example, I left a team at the end of 1995 and returned two seasons later. Same team, same players. Yet their ‘pre-training static stretching is making us weak’ attitude was a shock to me. After all, what I had done with them prior to leaving resulted in championships. In my time away they had gone down the new age route – and in two seasons dropped 10 places on the ladder to third last!

By the late 1990s/early 2000’s the stretching paradigm was that static stretching had an acute (short-term) impact of reducing your strength, so if you want to do it, only do it afterward the workout.  This paradigm suggested more dynamic or PNF (i.e. proprio-neuromuscular facilitation, a special mix of static and dynamic stretching) type stretching should be done before the workout, but again only short duration holds were apparently needed. [13]

What had significantly contributed to putting athletes on the podium and champions for team was suddenly unacceptable.

And after 15 years of doing it, by the mid-90s, something had happened. What was that?  Suddenly I learned of a new theory.  Stretching was bad. [14]

It was tough to understand. In 1989 I gave the Canadian men’s national Alpine Ski team a series of supervised stretching sessions. They loved it and wanted more. They got more over the next decade of my involvement. The Sports Science Director saw it and didn’t complain. It contributed to a positive outcome during that decade. Yet post 2000 the sports science director aligned with the new paradigm in his public presentations. It was hard to comprehend.

My publishing journey

I published extensively on the benefit of stretching from the early 1990s onwards. [15] [16][17] [18] Initially in Australia, and then in the late 1990s my writings were getting more exposure overseas, in particular the United States and Canada – in both professional as well as lay publications such as Men’s Health, Men’s Fitness and t-mag.com. The latter was one of the pioneers of online bodybuilding magazine, and the more public facing nature of this new medium gave me increased exposure to the thoughts and values of the masses, including through the extensive Q&A columns I wrote for the best part of a decade.

It was through this medium that I gained a sense of the shift in the paradigm to a negative sentiment towards stretching, especially pre-training static stretching.

I had as you might expect been promoting my perspective on the role and value of stretching to the readership, and then the ‘switch was flicked’ shortly after I began getting traction with the audience about my approach to stretching.

I was getting questions in my Q&A columns such as:

How do you feel now that you stretching message has been shown to cause weakness?

Here are some real examples:

You seem to prefer stretching before the workout. I have heard another coach speak several times and he is very set on not doing static stretching before the workout as it makes one weaker. I have read up on the subject, and it appears to be true.

I have seen that you recommend stretching before a workout (against many others’ opinions). 

I’m really confused about stretching.  As I mentioned to you in the past, I’m a trainer with ISSA and they say that stretching before you exercise can limit strength. 

Why do you recommend stretching before a workout?  Isn’t that considered “bad” these days? 

What do you think of the theory that says that pre-workout stretching kills the stretch reflex and reduces strength?

It was literally an overnight embracing of a new value set about stretching by people who, let’s be straight – were not talking from experience!

From 1995 to 2010, for 15 years I was mocked for my position. People thought I was fucking crazy. I do not know a single person in the world who has clearly stated, this is what I do, and this is why. No one else would do that because they don’t have the balls to think for themselves. … from 1980 to 1995, no one gave a rat’s ass about flexibility. So, the first 15 years, no one gave a rat’s ass. Next 15 years. They wanted to burn me at the stake, and I was ostracized on that point extensively. [19]

 

** The Laze Man’s Guide to Stretching! e-book is now available here! Education and programs for abdominal training, the first edition in a new series called the Get Buffed! Specialization Series.

 

References 

[1] King, I., 2026, Where it all began, KSI Blog, 18 May 2026

[2] King, I., 2011, Stretching debate, I Form, Magazine, Feb 2011

[3] King, I., 2010, Legacy Seminar, Gold Coast AUS, 26 April 2010

[4] King, I., 2011, Stretching debate, I Form, Magazine, Feb 2011

[5] King, I., 2019, How did you develop your approach to flexibility, Off the Record #50, 31 July 2019

[6] King, I., 2011, Stretching debate, I Form, Magazine, Feb 2011

[7] King, I., 2012, Ian King Live in London, 29 Feb 2012

[8] King, I., 2010, Barbells & Bullshit, Pt 3 of 10 – Flexibility an example of influence on physical qualities, DVD/Audio Series

[9] King, I., 2026, Get Buffed! V – Get Optimally Buffed! Ch 5 – Pillar 3: Stability

[10] King, I., 2011, How to Write Seminar Series – Pt 1 – How do I ensure balance in my strength training to prevent injuries? Nerang Qld Aust., Sun 15th May 2011

[11] King, I., 2012, KSI Coaching Program Level 2 Foundations, Unit 4 – Theory of flexibility development, (Video) 17 May 2012

[12] King, I., 2002, Get Buffed! II – Get More Buffed! Ch. 8 – The stretch – a performance advantage!

[13] King, I., 2002, Get Buffed! II – Get More Buffed! Ch. 8 – The stretch – a performance advantage!

[14] King, I., 2010, Barbells & Bullshit, Pt 3 of 10 – Flexibility an example of influence on physical qualities, DVD/Audio Series

[15] King, I., 1991, Level 1 Strength and Conditioning Coach Course, Australian Strength and Conditioning Association. (Course)

[16] King, I., 1991, Level 2 Strength and Conditioning Coach Course, Australian Strength and Conditioning Association.  (Course)

[17] King, I., 1994, The Flexibility Video Series – Part 1, 2 and 3

[18] King, I., 1994, Flexibility Training: Upgrading its Importance in the Talented Squash Player’s Program, Presentation at Squash Australia’s National Coaching Conference, Melbourne, Australia. 19-21 Aug 1994 (Presentation)

[19] King, I., 2011, How to Write Seminar Series – Pt 1 – How do I ensure balance in my strength training to prevent injuries? Nerang Qld Aust., Sun 15th May 2011

Ian King

Jett’s in the loop – and that’s a problem

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In late 2015 an Australia family packed up and left for Europe to support their teenage athlete children’s motorcross dreams.  Hunter was Jett was 16 years of age, and his younger brother Jett was 12. They spend about three years in Europe racing before achieving the bigger picture goal of gaining the opportunity to compete in the US supercross and motorcross seasons.

Their competitive success to date has left no doubt that they are amongst the greatest athlete exports out of Australia.  So great, one or both could challenge for the title of GOAT – greatest of all time, in US super/moto cross racing history. Of the two Jett is currently more dominative – when he is on the track.

And that’s the challenge for Jett. The greatest challenge for Jett in achieving the GOAT status are potential injuries. In the AMA 450cc Supercross class, Jett has completed one out of three seasons. He won the season completed. In the AMA 450cc Motorcross  class, Jett has completed one out of three seasons. He won both of the seasons he completed.

That’s a total of 3 seasons out of six or 50% completion.

While many ask whether he is going to be the next GOAT, perhaps a more pertinent question may be to understand why he is in the situation where he has a combined season completion rate in the 450cc class of 50%.

I suggest that Jett’s in ‘the loop’. The injury loop as I call it. And that’s a problem.

The aim of this article is to discuss the ‘loop’.  Ideally, we would be discussing the cause of the injuries in the first place, however that would be for most too esoteric. So, at the shallow level of public discourse, I will stick with the less disputable – the injury loop.

The challenge for me is witnessing greatness being jeopardized by the preventable. The talent is indisputable. But is it going to be unfulfilled?

The Loop

The injury loop is where an athlete gets an injury, fails to rehabilitate fully before returning to competition, and suffers another injury as a result of that failure. [1]  I have spoken about this phenomenon for a number of decades now.

This is what most people do. They get a niggle, they ignore it. The niggle kind of keeps coming back. They say it can’t be so, because their left brain will tell them it can’t be so. They ignore it. Now perhaps at some point in time it gets so bad they’ll go and see someone and get ineffective treatment. It won’t work.

They’ll keep training and then they’ll blow up. They’ll have a tear. They’ll have an injury. Then they’ll get poor rehabilitation. They won’t fix the cause. They’ll address the symptom. They’ll go back to training. They’ll either blow the same thing, or they’ll blow the other side. And this is a pattern that continues to repeat itself.

So, I cannot stress enough. If your body is telling you there’s something not right, fix it. When we’re young we think we’re bulletproof. When we get a little bit older, reality sets in. You should be wiser beyond your years when it comes to the pain message from the body. Do not ignore your body. Find somebody who can help you remove that little niggle. Do not wait until it becomes an injury. Do not injure yourself before you cease training.[2] [3]

Predictable and preventable. Now, according to some, injuries can only be avoided through divine intervention. That’s a theory. There are many theories, but mine is human intervention can actually prevent because you can predict them. So, what we’ll be doing today is showing you how very briefly to look at a joint and say, ‘this is what’s going to happen.’

So, after trauma, what happens next?  We have some form of treatment or intervention. So, the intervention comes in two forms. The intervention can either be through treatment of some kind, or it can come through surgery.

And most treatments are ineffective and ultimately end in surgery anyway.

And this is a loop. I get a pain message, I ignore it, it goes away, I get it again, I ignore it, and you start looping down here and ultimately there’s trauma, which brings us to our next level. After trauma, we go through a period of rehabilitation. And then we return to training. And then what happens next? The cycle begins again. I’m not being cynical, I’m being literal. The cycle begins again. They either injure the same side again, or they injure the opposite side, or contralateral.

So, the other side in that plane, to the back, to the other side, or the front to the other side. So basically, the first inhibition here will lead to all these things and will lead to a subsequent injury.  So, the cycle goes round and round in circles until the person can’t train and has to quit physical activity or retire from sport. So, with my approach to prevention of injury as being the most important thing a physical preparation coach does, nobody will get surgery, and everything below here becomes redundant. [4] [5]

Sometimes the lack of full rehabilitation is caused by impatience. Sometimes by incompetence on the part of the support team. Sometimes it neither but instead a high-level concept that is outside the awareness of the majority.

Either way there are two indisputable facts – one, it could be prevented. And two, it is going to cause future injuries and negatively impact the duration and or height of the athlete’s career.

Jett’s injuries

Dec 2025 – Fractured right ankle (talus and navicular), surgery

July. 2024 – Torn left thumb ligament (ulnar collateral ligament), surgery

2-25 – ACL tear, meniscus damage, right knee, surgery

Solutions

Rather than simply criticize what’s going on, I provide some guidance for those are looking for a better way to return to sport from injury.

  • Respect the niggle
  • Fix the niggle – fast
  • Get the best guidance possible
  • Establish clarity around risk : reward outcomes
  • Have a clear time frame
  • Ensure optimal rate of rehab
  • Create a progressive return to sport plan
  • Have pre-determined milestones for determine when to return to eath progressive level of sport
  • Stop with the ‘injuries in sport are normal’ attitude

Respect the niggle

The body sends messages about pain and impending injury potential

… generally speaking, most people get a niggle and they ignore it. They get a niggle and then someone else tells them to ignore it. And they get a niggle, and they go to someone and they say, ‘Oh, I don’t know about it, I don’t really know.’ And six months later, it’s a big problem. So, they’ll sit out for a few weeks, and they’ll come back and it’s okay now and they’ll get injured again… A few weeks from now, they’ll be out for a few more months, and it’ll just go like this. This is how sport’s done.[6]

Fix the niggle – fast

I suggest you respect the message, which I call a niggle. And fix it immediately. [7]

The second thing that happens, you get to know about it at this point in time, is you get some sort of symptom or pain. You get a message from the body.

And I’ll call it pain, but most people don’t describe it as pain because it’s too low level. It’s more like a niggle. They feel a niggle. And typically, we ignore it. Or we tell someone about it and they say, ‘oh, it’ll go away shortly, don’t worry about it.’ Or tell me about it if it’s still there in two weeks’ time. The bottom line is it’s really just, now that’s the body giving you a message. There’s something wrong, fix it. Most of us ignore the message. Now there’s also a left-brain desire not to have the problem, so it doesn’t exist, doesn’t exist, put your head in the sand and hope it goes away. My approach to this is I remove the niggle within the first 24 hours.

My approach to this is I remove the niggle within the first 24 hours. I want to get rid of all niggles within the first 24 hours. That means two things. It means the athlete has to report the niggle, and then you have to have the ability to remove it. Now, the athlete can also be educated to the point where they learn to remove it themselves. And athletes I work with are that well-trained and that smart about their body, they know how to address their niggles.[8] [9]

Get the best guidance possible

My hope is that the level of guidance sought at least matches what is at stake.  In other words, in the case of a elite athlete, let alone a potential GOAT, I would hope no stone has been left un-turned, so to speak.

I have spent too much time with elite athletes who were broken when I met them and chose to stay on their own path to know that this is simply not the case.

I don’t put all the blame on the athlete alone, although unless they are a minor (under 18 years of age) they have to take some responsibility.

I believe that in many cases its their support staff or sports medicine team protecting their own egos that denies the athlete the best outcome.

Here are a few examples:

Case study 1 – The athlete was the reigning Olympic champion in their sport, but injury and poor results had meant they were not on track to even qualify to go to the next Olympics. They were advised by their physical therapist to come and see me and they did. They returned to the next Olympics and were on the podium.

Case study 2 – The athlete was the reigning Olympic champion in their sport but injury had meant they were not on track to even qualify to go to the next Olympics.  They wanted to come and see me but their physical therapist didn’t want them to. They sent them to someone else. They failed to qualify and be selected for the next Olympics, and their career came to an end.

Case study 3 – The athlete had missed selection for the Olympics because of injury. The national team doctor had recommended surgery to solve the problem and they did this. The problem remained. The national team doctor had another solution – retire. The athlete did not take this advice, instead following the recommendation of a team mate to see me. They overcame the injury and went to the next Olympics.

Case study 4 – The athlete has just gone to their third Olympics and at the age most have retired by were performing at their career best. They met a physical coach who encouraged them to change their physical coach. They failed to qualify and be selected for the next Olympics, and their career came to an end.

Case study 5 – The athlete had been selected for their first Olympics but had injured themselves prior to the event and could not attend. They began training for the next Olympics. In this time they met with me and they knew I had helped another athlete podium in their discipline. They did not follow my guidance. They had repeat injury prior to the next Olympics but were given to the 11th hour to qualify post-surgery, which they did.  They finally got to their Olympics but how many more? And will they ever stand on the podium at the Games?

Case study 6 – The athlete has just become the first person in their country to win a Gold Medal in a certain Olympic event.  However, injury and poor results had meant they were not on track to even qualify to go to the next Olympics. I met with them and I gave them insights into what was going on.  The athlete was furious with the coach for allowing this situation to develop without understanding what was happening. The coach did all they could to prevent the athlete from continuing along the guidance as it was exposing their mistake.  They failed to qualify and be selected for the next Olympics, and their career came to an end.

What are you willing to do get the best answers? Recently I got up a 4am, flew a few hours, drove a few more – to have a 2 hour consult with a person I believe to be the best in their field in the country – and then returned along the same drive / fly travel, arriving home at 10pm that night. And that was for a non-national level (at the moment) athlete.  Being and getting the best is not convenient.

Establish clarity around risk : reward outcomes

There are times in injuries when I recommend you understand the risks and rewards. And there are times you will take the risks and there are times when you will not. But I recommend you be informed and make an informed decision.

The risk reward goes beyond surgery and treatment decisions. It includes return to sport decisions. Unless that athlete is either at the end of their career or the opportunity reward is incredibly high, I do not support return to sport prior to full recovery.

Here’s a challenge for motorbike athletes – you might be limping, but you can still twist the throttle. In other words, you can ride, but should you?

Here are a few examples:

Case study 1- The athlete was selected for their run-on opportunity in their career for their national team. The challenge is they had broken ribs.  We spend some time discussing the risk : reward. If they sit out, the opportunity may never come again. If they play, they could puncture their lungs. They sat out. And the opportunity came again. They had promised to gift me that game journey. I lost out on the jersey, but we gained on the future health and career longevity of the athlete.

Case study 2 – The athlete has, I suspect, been offered an inducement not to play, to damage the team’s success.  I had previously salvaged their career through over-rediing a inaccurate diagnosis and treatment path that was seeing them out of their sport for an extended period. They came to me, and every consultant in the team, to support their decision not to play based on a cited injury. I did not give them guidance either way, as I believed that was their decision to make. They chose to sit out. They got the inducement. The team lost that day.°

Case study 3 – The athlete had a displaced clavicle (collar bone)  at the sternum (chest) end. They had been selected to play for their national team. I took them to meet with a trusted orthopedic surgeon. We discussed the risk reward at length. If they didn’t have surgery they could play tomorrow, but risk puncturing their lungs. If they had surgery, there would be no risk of lung damage, but they would be out of selection for an extended period of time.  There not competing for selection with other genuine competitors. They chose not to have surgery. They did not suffer any lung damage. They played the number of games they were driven to play.

Have a clear time frame

Time frame matters for perception. There is a saying in sociology that revolts are caused when there is a discrepancy between what someone has been told or been lead to belief, and reality. The same frustration can creep into return to sport decisions.

In sport there are diverse approaches to time frame. One physical therapist I worked with would tell everyone a time frame longer than what they know would occur, I suggest embellishing their reputation as a ‘god’.

Many coaches I have worked with would pressure the medical team to shorten the prognosis time frame for return to sport in the interests of the coaches win : loss record.

Predicted time frames aside, consider also the individual situation. Surgery technique advancements have led to short recovery times, but the human doby ultimately will decide, in collaboration with how and what you are doing, when it is ready. This reality needs to be including in the counselling of the athlete from the start.

Ensure optimal rate of rehab

If or when the rehabilitation from injury is going slower than is optimal, frustration and the associated poor decision making can come into the equation.

People just accept slow rehab and then they train at the same time because they’re not going to take two months off or six months off or two years off training. So, it just slows it down again. You know, slow rehab causes a lot of problems…I want to get results really fast. [10]

Fix it. It’s not being fixed fast enough. Rehabs too slow. Rehab across the world is too slow.[11]

To provide clear expectations around this, I teach that if within two weeks you are not confident that the current consultant or strategy used by consultant is going to get you the results you want within the time frame you want, look to change it up. [12]

And what I’ll teach you is that if the issue isn’t resolved within two weeks, you need to go see someone else. Now I’m being a little bit exaggerated, but not too much. If you’re not making pretty significant progress in a two week time period, move on. Either move on to the technique you’re using in treatment, or move on to another therapist. But the therapists that really annoy me are those who create an emotional dependence of the client or the athlete on them. And it does occur. [13]

If someone is going to a therapist, this is my rule to an athlete: if you go to somebody two times and you aren’t confident that you’re on the road to full recovery, change your direction. You’ve got two shots at it. Fix it or merely fix it in two shots or we’ll move on …. [14] [15] [16]

Create a progressive return to sport plan

The benefit of making a theoretical plan in advance is that it can help you mitigate decisions influenced by non-optimal factors such as athlete or stake-holder frustration about any delays in return to sport.

This plan is a projection and can be simple or structural in nature. However, no matter how minimal the plan, an expectation set in relative calmness prior to the moment it is needed is a wise step in this situation.

For example – and only as an example e-  training comes before competition, lower-level competition comes before higher level competition, and race simulation in training comes before lower-level competition.

Have pre-determined milestones for determine when to return to each progressive level of sport

Once you have a progressive plan of activity in the return to sport plan, you will want to have a set of criteria to match that activity.

To be blunt, if you are still limping, you are not ready to be racing at the highest level. Yes, you can do it, but that decision is keeping the athlete in the loop.

Ideally, stay consistent to the plan.

My goal is to get this ankle fully healed up and return as competitive as ever and make the 2026 season as successful as we can.—Jett Lawrence, Dec 2025[17]

Stop with the ‘injuries in sport are normal’ attitude

It’s one thing for low level and amateur athletes to blame their injuries on the sport. [18]

I really believe that there is a philosophy at least in western world sport and in general life that it’s okay to be injured and injuries are normal. Aside from the cost of injury to the community, the cost to the individual is significant and my philosophy is that no, it’s not okay to be injured….[19]

However, to hear it from athletes and stakeholders of athletes who are at or aim to be the elite level, it unacceptable.

I have a different attitude, and it’s a better one that ‘injuries are out of our control’. [20]

It is my belief that the injuries are unnecessary and unacceptable. And I get tired of people saying that that’s just the impact in sport. You know, that’s just the nature of the sport. That’s bullshit. [21] [22] [23]

…too many in the sports circle now accept, embrace and even benefit from this high incidence of injury. [24]

With all due respect, it was tough hearing the number one stake holder default to this attitude:

“It’s just one of those things. A lot of people go through it, they have just a few years of just silly mistakes and that’s all it is with Jett. Like, the knee was just something weird, tabbed his foot and it did his ACL, it was just weird, you know.

“So, this one was the same, it just went over a jump, his foot touched the gear lever, clicked it into neutral and boom, had neutral when he hit the face of the next jump. We have not hit neutral on that motorcycle in four years, but just his foot just touched it and that was it, game over.

Here’s a different viewpoint, one that seeks to bring more variables back into the control of the athlete and their support team:

Traumatic injuries, sometimes called impact injuries, occur suddenly and often when significant forces (gravity or external load/other people’s bodies) are involved.  Because of this, it is easy to explain them away as ‘it just happened as a result of the impact’. I do not agree with this. I believe most impact/traumatic injuries are chronic injuries in disguise and can be avoided or at worst reduced in incidence and severity.

If fifty percent of all injuries were of this traumatic/impact nature (just to use an example), I believe that more appropriate understanding of injury symptoms and cause-effect relationships in training program design could eliminate these  chronic injuries. [25]

Conclusion

Jett’s injuries during the last five seasons are indisputable. That he is in what I refer to as the ‘injury loop’ is conjecture. Based on a bit of practice.

I do not expect the case study here to change direction. However anyone in a similar situation, or wishing to avoid this situation, may benefit from from the lessons provided.

However, no lesson will be taken if the common thinking is maintained. This is a Google AI conclusion to the question ‘which knee did Jett Lawrence injury’.

“Lawrence also sustained an unrelated injury to his right ankle during a pre-season training crash in December 2025).

If you think its unrelated, you have a lot of company, with people who abdicate the opportunity to shape their destiny. If it’s unrelated, he is not an my so-called ‘injury loop’.

On the other hand, if you believe the ankle injury may be related to the knee injury, then you might find value in lessons shared.

 

References

[1] King, I., 2025, Legacy Vol 1 – Injury prevention, Theory #77 – The injury loop

[2] King, I., 2015, The Stop Injuries in Strength Training Video Series, Pt 2 of 10 – Why injuries in strength training occur

[3] King, I., 2018, Zero Tolerance to Injuries Video Series, Pt 2 of 10: Why injuries in strength training occur

[4] King, I., 2015, The Stop Injuries in Strength Training Video Series, Pt 3 of 10: Insights into common strength training injury sites and causes

[5] King, I., 2018, Zero Tolerance to Injuries Series, Pt 3 of 10 -Insights into common strength training  injury sites and causes

[6] King, I., 2015, Injury prevention and rehabilitation (Seminar), Singapore 11 April 2015

[7] King, I., 2025, Legacy Vol 1 – Injury prevention, Theory #75 – Remove the niggle in 24 hours

[8] King, I., 2015, The Stop Injuries in Strength Training Video Series, Pt 3 of 10: Insights into common strength training injury sites and causes

[9] King, I., 2018, Zero Tolerance to Injuries Series, Pt 3 of 10: Insights into common strength training  injury sites and causes

[10] King, I., 2012, Speed seminar, Adelaide, Sun 25 March 2025

[11] King, I., 2012, Speed seminar, Adelaide, Sun 25 March 2025

[12] King, I., 2025, Legacy Vol 1 – Injury prevention, Theory #84 – The two week rehab rule

[13] King, I., 2000, Injury Prevention and Rehabilitation Series (DVD)

[14] King, I., 2015, Strength Training and Injury Prevention. 2015 SWIS Conference 13-14 Nov 2015, Canada

[15] King, I., 2015, The Stop Injuries in Strength Training Video Series, Pt 1 of 10

[16] King, I., 2018, Zero Tolerance to Injuries Video Series, Pt 1 of 10: Introduction into injuries in strength training

[17] https://racerxonline.com/2025/12/20/jett-lawrence-injured-in-training-crash

[18] King, I., 2025, Legacy Vol 1 – Injury prevention, Theory #29 – It’s not okay

[19] King, I., 2000, Injury Prevention and Rehabilitation Series

[20] King, I., 2025, Legacy Vol 1 – Injury prevention, Theory #30 – The sport didn’t cause the injuries

[21] King, I., 2015, Strength Training and Injury Prevention. 2015 SWIS Conference 13-14 Nov 2015, Toronto ONT Canada

[22] King, I., 2015, The Stop Injuries in Strength Training Video Series, Pt 1 of 10 – Introduction to Injuries in Strength Training

[23] King, I., 2018, Zero Tolerance to Injuries Video Series, Pt 1 of 10: Introduction into injuries in strength training

[24] King, I., 2015, Physical train wrecks – it does not have to be this way, 13 Aug 2015

[25] King, I., 2005, The way of the physical preparation coach – Ch 13: Injury prevention and rehabilitation, (Book),

 

Image  “Washougal MX 2021 P1277967” by Ryan Elwell is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License.

Ian King

Awesome Abs – And 10 reasons why it won’t happen!

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The abdominals are one of the most emotionally driven muscle groups in physique enhancement. Perhaps not as high up on the value list as say arms for males or currently the gluts for women, but they have been a mainstay for a long time.

There are a few questions about this, including is the focus producing the full potential of the abdominals? If it was, because of their relatively high standing in the emotional stakes, then the outcomes should mean there are very few shortcoming existing.

I suggest that is not the case. However, I respect that my ‘take’ on abs may be different than yours, and definitely different to the mainstream interpretation.

Here’s ten reasons why I have little confidence that what you are doing with your abdominal training will meet my definition of ‘Awesome Abs’:

  1. Your ab picture is small (Purpose)
  2. Your values are upside down (Visual)
  3. Your ab work is not contributing to the battle (Injury prevention)
  4. Your transfer to sport and or life is not effective (Transfer)
  5. You didn’t take the class (Prioritization)
  6. You do abs last (Sequence)
  7. You do too few ab exercises (Volume)
  8. Your ab view is too narrow (Lines of movement)
  9. You’re too scared to be / do differently (Conformity)
  10. You’re sucked into the conspiracy (Commerce)
  1. Your ab picture is small (Purpose)

I’ve said above that abdominals are a highly emotional muscle group in physical enhancement training. However, that is predominantly for one purpose only – aesthetics. The visual appeal of ‘ripped/shredded’ abs, affectionally referred to as a ‘six pack’. And no longer the exclusive domain of males.

That’s cute. But it’s a small picture.  If you consider my alternative picture on what the abs offer, you are focusing on 33% or 1/3rd of the ab offering and leaving the remaining 2/3rds on the table.

Here’s my ‘bigger picture’ of the abs, one that I have been sharing for over quarter of a century:

There are a number of reasons why you may or should be doing abdominal exercises and they include:

  • Abdominal training and visual impact
  • Abdominal training and transfer to sport and or life
  • Abdominal training and injury prevention [1] [2] [3] [4]

Perhaps now you can see why I suggest that if not you, the majority have a very small picture view on their abdominal training influences.

  1. Your values are upside down (Visual)

To continue with this discussion, even if you were to suggest that your training embraced this bigger picture, I would challenge you on your values. Which of these purposes do you hold in the highest regard and which do you place at the bottom of your focus?

I suggest that an objective analysis of your abdominal training values, as demonstrated by your exercise choices, may be different to mine.

One of us is upside down…

As you will learn in this book there are a number of purposes or benefits from doing what I refer to abdominal training including visual, transfer to life and or sport (function) and injury prevention.  As you may have picked up on by now, I actually have a reverse perspective on the relative value of these three purposes or benefits – injury prevention, transfer and visual.[5]

Make no mistake – your values will drive your program design, and in turn the training results you get.

  1. Your ab work is not contributing to the battle (Injury prevention)

When I’m talking about the injury prevention role of abdominals, one of those key tasks is to contribute to a force couple with the abdominals to posteriorly rotate the pelvis (stand the pelvis up). [6]

I’m going to ask her to suck her stomach thin and to squeeze her cheeks. Why do I want to do that?  Well, I want to, they’re the two force couples and we’ll change the shape of her pelvis…She’s got a lack of awareness posturally. She hasn’t got a lot of support. And I’ve only just looked at one half of the force couple. [7]

What are the force couples for posterior rotation of the pelvis? …Glutes and abs…Versus what? Quads and hip flexors, generally speaking…[8]

I call this ‘the battle’: [9]

What is it, the force couple? Hip flexors, quads, pulling the pelvis forward, glutes not strong enough to hold it back, abdominals not contributing to hold it back. The hip flexors and quads are winning the battle. [10]

And the challenge for you, the way I suspect you are doing abdominal training, you are losing the battle:

Why is it pulling forward? What’s winning the battle? … The hip flexors and quads are winning the battle. [11]

This pattern results in the hip flexors winning the battle against the abs and glutes, consequently pulling the top of the pelvis forward and resulting in a pinching of the nerves feeding the lower body. Why? Because the quads/hip flexors get a better training effect. [12]

  1. Your transfer to sport and or life is not effective (Transfer)

The third purpose for abdominal training I identify is transfer.  And yes, everyone talks about – but if I was to literally interpret what the world is doing, I am going to assume that the so called ‘plank’ is the exercise that has been crowned as being the exercise with the greatest transfer. Now I don’t, because I do not believe that is the reason this exercise is arguably the most commonly used abdominal exercise in the world these days, taking over from the pre-2000’s garden variety ‘sit-up’. Call me cynical, but I suspect that the plank is chosen because it’s perceived as easy to teach and creates a painful muscle fatiguing outcome in the clients who have been conditioned to believe that muscle fatigue means a satisfactory training effect is occurring.

But if I did literally interpret the omnipresent ‘plank’, humans must live and play sport with rigor mortis….

  1. You didn’t take the class (Prioritization)

Since the 1990s, I’ve been providing a concise ‘prioritization of strength training’ lesson.

Prioritization of muscle group

i. By sequence:

a. Within the workout.

b. Within the training week.

ii. By volume.

iii. By load:

a. Load potential.

b. Percentage of maximum load. [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19]

I may be off point here, but if you are doing what everyone else is doing with your abdominal training, I am going to conclude you didn’t take the class – Prioritization in Strength Training 101!  Because they are simply not congruent!

  1. You do abs last (Sequence)

If most or all the time you do abs last in your strength workout, you are being compliant. Compliant with what most do.

The continuing dominant paradigm is that abdominals should be done last.  What if they are the weakest body part?  That doesn’t seem to matter!  What if they are the number one training focus for performance?  Again, it doesn’t seem to matter – they are placed last.  Why?  The repetitive answer I get to this is ‘because they cause fatigue of stabilizers and it would be dangerous to do things like squats after doing abdominals’.  Where is the evidence?  Is this evidence from empirical observations or ‘scientific’ research?  Again, that doesn’t seem to matter.  NOBODY does abdominals first!  What a load of trash!  The excuses support the paradigm, nothing more.  I train abdominals first when they are the priority for whatever reason and only put them to the end of the workout when I don’t want to totally avoid any possibility of total body fatigue prior to a maximal strength workout.  That is, I wouldn’t want the total body fatigue draining the neuromuscular system, reducing the potential for load.  But nothing to do with injury potential! [20]

But not compliant with what I concluded in the 1980s and shared repetitively in print from the 1990s onwards. [21]

Some key things I do (and perhaps a little different to what you may be used to!) is I spend a substantial amount of program time doing abdomen at the START OF THE WORKOUT.  Yes, that’s right, before any other exercises.  I know what you are going to say – how many times have I heard it?  Your granddaddy told your daddy and he told you – doing abs first will cause fatigue in the support muscles, which is evil blah blah.  Before you reel out the rhetoric give it a go.  Absolutely bash your abdominals and then squat – then come to your own conclusions.  It’s okay to have a different opinion to the rest of the well-trained monkeys! [22]

So, if you are doing what everyone else is doing – doing abs last most or all of the time – you are not going to achieve what I believe is the potential of your abdominals.

  1. You do too few ab exercises (Volume)

Most do one or two sets of abdominal exercises per workout and believe that’s sufficient. That might be in point some of the time, or for those who say only doing a total of one or two sets of lower or upper body per workout. And that’s rare.

Most do two to six (2-6) exercises and four to twelve (4-12) sets per muscle group. But not on the abs.

Bill Pearl’s  classic Keys to the Inner Universe lists and graphically illustrates over 100 ab and trunk exercises! Despite all this info, there seems to be a gap in the knowledge and the actual practice. I still see exercise programs that select only one abdominal exercise, usually a trunk flexion movement. Would you use only one exercise to train your legs or your chest? [23]

How do you explain that?

The only way you can is on the basis you believe the abs don’t deserve equality in volume to other muscle groups.

And that’s another reason you are not going to experience ‘Awesome Abs’, not at least by my definition.

  1. Your ab view is too narrow (Lines of movement)

Prior to the release of the Lines of Movement concept in the 1990s, the world viewed ‘legs’ as just that – legs.  All leg exercises were grouped together. Don’t believe me? You obviously weren’t doing leg exercises pre-2000 if you don’t!  In his classic book ‘classic Keys to the Inner Universe’[24] the legs were just that. A category that included squat and squat variations, along with deadlifting and deadlift variations.

This is not a criticism of Bill’s work. He was just reflecting the thinking of the time.  And so was everyone else. Up until at least, the late 1990s when I began to speak more openly about ‘Family Trees’ and ‘Lines of Movement’ in strength training.

That’s a concept I’m sure you’ll have never heard before because this is the first time I have spoken about it. [25]

The challenge with a broad grouping list is that it’s easy to miss appropriate balancing where there is the need to recognize the differences in specific muscle group actions within the muscle group.

Which is why I separated ‘Hip dominant’ from ‘Quad dominant’.

After many years I have decided that there are two family trees in lower body exercises – one where the quad dominates, and one where the hip dominates. [26]

And you are probably making this mistake by assuming and treating the ‘abdominals’ (or worse still, the ‘core’) as one. They are not.

I divide the abdominal muscle groups or functions down into six (6).  The technical correctness of my divisions I will leave to those with the time and motivation to debate to do so.  This is a simple and effective approach to ensuring exposure to all abdominal and some of the other trunk stabilizers…[27]

I provided the ‘Abdominal Lines of Movement’ over a quarter of a century ago, yet most chose not to ‘take that class!’. If you are choosing to ignore some or most of these abdominal ‘Lines of Movement’ – and most are – you’d better have a very good reason for it – other than ignorance…

  1. You’re too scared to be / do differently (Conformity)

As I mentioned above, you are most likely doing abdominals the way everyone else is. And that’s fine. It’s just not optimal.

I resonate with the American existential psychologist and author Rollo May’s treatise on conformity:

The opposite of courage isn’t cowardice; it’s conformity.[28]

It may be harsh, but I am willing to challenge you – one of the main reasons you are doing what you are doing in relation to your abdominal training is that you would prefer to conform. And that’s a choice.

You could break the mold. But it would mean being different, and I understand not too many of you are ready to be different.  Conformity is much more comfortable… Most humans chose to live a life less courageous, more ordinary. So, you are ‘normal’ by choosing the same.[29]

It’s just a choice worth reflecting on.

Including once you have considered my thoughts about the drivers of the trends you are conforming to.

  1. You’re sucked into the conspiracy (Commerce)

When I first started writing about a possible ‘conspiracy’ in training back in the late 1990s, I didn’t feel totally comfortable because back then anyone talking conspiracy was considered somewhat of a ‘nutter’, at risk of not being taken seriously. Fast forward to the 2020s, and everyone has a conspiracy theory they want to share. So, rest assured, this talk is not a new post-Covid trend compliant behaviour. I’ve been singing from this song-sheet for a bit longer than that…[30]

So, your approach to abdominal training is compliant with the majority, or the dominant trend.  For those interested in unpacking this, how is a trend shaped?  I have for a number of decades shared my beliefs on what are the influences that shape trends in strength training. [31]

Trends I suggest are commercially driven. So, they are not there because they are optimal, they are not dominating because they are in the best interests of the end user – they dominate because people with adequate financial resources have driven the paradigm for their commercial benefit. [32]

For me the number one driver of behavior in our industry are those with vested interests.  The product/equipment manufacturers and distributors are great examples of this…

In the early years of my coaching career, I was where many of you are probably now, believing that to study and learn from ‘trends in training’ was wise.  It didn’t take me long to revise my perspective substantially since then. Throughout the 1990s I warned of the dangers of following trends. In my 2002 second edition of my 1997 book Winning and Losing I dedicated an entire chapter to this topic, titled ‘Don’t Get Sucked in by the Trends!’ [33]

To cut to the point – the risk abdominal training trends face is that too many can be done without equipment. And this is a problem…

Did you know the next craze to come out in this industry is this? It takes 15 minutes a day, six days a week, and involves no equipment. It’s going to be the next really big fad. There’ll be no equipment, and it will take up a time. What are my chances? None whatsoever. Because of why? There’s no equipment. Can’t sell it. No one’s going to make any money off it. And it doesn’t meet the needs of instant gratification. There are two criteria. The only stuff that you get exposed to in this country is stuff that people can make money off, and it’s convenient. And your entire professional thinking is based on those two things. You are completely bound on the variables of because someone decided they could commercialize it and make a profit margin from the sale of goods, that it met your perception of instant gratification. Neither of those two things are fundamentally sound. [34]

Just like another training method that has for the last few decades been successfully suppressed – stretching. Because it too – God forbid – is not equipment dependant…yet!

Who’s promoting you to flexibility? No one because they can’t make any money out of it. What’s the other thing? It’s one of the few physical qualities where perhaps more is better. How are you going to sell that? I want you to stretch for 20 hours a week. Not too many people want to join me. 

I’ll go and stretch for two hours. Who’s going to come with me? It doesn’t meet the social trend. Because you are marketing driven to be this, and the quickness, the marketing stimuli is so short and fast now that no one produces articles. They produce short things and they’ll be this and they’ll be this. And instead of every month, they go every week and it’s every day and it’s five times a day. And that’s the speed of marketing. The world isn’t stretch deficient because stretching isn’t effective. It’s just not marketable from the American marketing perspective. [35]

I know the world has fallen off the map when it comes to appropriate application of stretching.  I fear also that abdominal training may be slipping as well – for the same reason. Exercises that do not rely on equipment threaten the take up of equipment sales for those exercises that are reliant on equipment. Your training habits are up against well-funded opposition. You need to decide whose interests you are going to serve.

Conclusion

So, there you have it. You have the opportunity for ‘Awesome Abs’, but odds are, at least from my perspective, you probably won’t achieve them.   That may be harsh, but from travelling the world helping athletes and others with their training during the last half a century, that’s the conclusion I’ve reached.

But there is hope.

Provided you are ready and willing to take a bigger picture view of your abdominals, and to step outside the comfort and confines of the average person’s choices. To ‘think for yourself’. [36]

To help you do this, I have a created a book to help – and yes, the book is titled ‘Awesome Abs!’

When the abdominal student is ready, the ‘Awesome Abs!’ book can appear. That’s up to you. And of course, your view of the abdominals purpose and whether you feel you have fulfilled the potential of your abdominals.

 

** The Awesome Abs! e-book is now available here! Education and programs for abdominal training, the first edition in a new series called the Get Buffed! Specialization Series.

 

References

[1] King, I., 2001, Thinking Man’s Guide to Ab Training, Testosterone, Issue No. 4, April 2001, p. 42-49. (Article)

[2] King, I., 2002, Awesome Abs – Stage 1, t-mag.com, 12 April 2002. (Article)

[3] King, I., 2002, Get Buffed! II: Get MORE Buffed! Ch. 9 – The abdominal exercises. (Book)

[4] King, I., 2026, Awesome Abs – Ch. 3- Why do abdominal training, Get Buffed Specialization Series (Book)

[5] King, I., 2026, Awesome Abs – Introduction, Get Buffed Specialization Series (Book)

[6] King, I., 2025, Legacy – Ian King’s Training Innovations – Volume 1 – Parts 1 & 2 : Injury Prevention and Performance Enhancement – Theory #94 – The pelvis force couple (Book, 2nd Ed.)

[7] King, I., 2016, A coach’s guide to preventing, identifying, managing, and rehabilitating lower back injuries, SWIS Presentation, Canada

[8] King, I., 2018, Does powerlifting transfer to sport? SWIS Convention Canada, 28 Oct 2018

[9] King, I., 2025, Legacy – Ian King’s Training Innovations – Volume 1 – Parts 1 & 2 : Injury Prevention and Performance Enhancement – Theory #95 – Who’s winning the battle? (Book, 2nd Ed.)

[10] King, I., 2010, Barbells & Bullshit, Los Angeles, 2 Oct 2010 (Seminar)

[11] King, I., 2010, Barbells & Bullshit, Los Angeles, 2 Oct 2010 (Seminar)

[12] King, I., 2001, Pelvis has left the building – How pelvic alignment and proper exercise program design can keep the injury goblins at bay, t-mag.com, 28 Dec 2001

[13] King, I., 1998, How to Write Strength Training Programs, Prioritizing muscle groups (Book)

[14] King, I., 2011, KSI Coach Education Program, L1 Legacy, Unit 10 – Balance (Course)

[15] King, I., 2013, Legacy – Ian King’s Training Innovations, Ch. 28- Prioritization (Book)

[16] King, I., 2015, Strength training and injury prevention, Presentation at the 2015 Society of Weight Training Specialists (SWIS) Symposium, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 13-14 November 2015 (Presentation; Video)

[17] King, I., 2018, Ian King’s Guide to Strength Training, Vol. 3 – How to transfer strength training, Chapter 6

Avoiding creating new imbalances (Book)

[18] King, I., 2026, Legacy – Ian King’s Training Innovations – Volume 2 – Parts 3 & 4: Flexibility & Strength, Theory #255 – Reimagining strength training prioritization, (Book, 2nd Ed.)

[19] King, I., 2026, Get Buffed! V – Get Optimally Buffed, Chapter 7 Program design for Neuromuscular Optimization (Book)

[20] King, I., 2002, Get Buffed! II (Book), Sequence of Abdominal Training within the Workout, p. 130

[21] King, I., 2025, Legacy – Ian King’s Training Innovations – Volume 1 – Parts 1 & 2 : Injury Prevention and Performance Enhancement – Theory #99 – Abs first (Book, 2nd Ed.)

[22] King, I., 2003, Ask the Master (Book), p. 15

[23] King, I., 2001, Thinking Man’s Guide to Ab Training, Testosterone, Issue No. 4, April 2001, p. 42-49. (Article)

[24] Pearl, B., 1979, Keys to the Inner Universe, 1st Ed., Physical Fitness Architects, Pasadena, California

[25] King, I., 1998, Strength Specialization Series (DVD)

[26] King, I., 1998, Strength Specialization Series (DVD)

[27] King, I., 2002, Get Buffed! II: Get MORE Buffed! Ch. 9 – The abdominal exercises. (Book)

[28] May, R., 1953, Man’s Search for Himself (Book)

[29] King, I., 2022, Off the Record #122 – We work together every week, 6 April 2022 (Article)

[30] King, I., 2025, Legacy – Ian King’s Training Innovations – Volume 1 – Parts 1 & 2 : Injury Prevention and Performance Enhancement – Theory #27 – It’s a conspiracy (Book, 2nd Ed.)

[31] King, I., 2025, Legacy – Ian King’s Training Innovations – Volume 1 – Parts 1 & 2 : Injury Prevention and Performance Enhancement – Theory #122 – Training trends are commercially driven (Book, 2nd Ed.)

[32] King, I., 1997, Winning and Losing (book), Chapter 7 – Training Theories, p. 41-42

[33] King, I., 2018, KSI Coaching Program, L0 – Orientation, Unit 2 – What are the influences on the way I train my clients?

[34] King, I., 2010, It won’t sell, 8 Oct 2010, YouTube

[35] King, I., 2010, It won’t sell, 8 Oct 2010, YouTube

[36] King, I., 2025, Legacy – Ian King’s Training Innovations – Volume 1 – Parts 1 & 2 : Injury Prevention and Performance Enhancement – Theory #124 – Over-react in the short-term and under-react in the long-term (Book, 2nd Ed.)

Ian King

So happy for you Kenny!

/by

On May 9 2026, in Round 17 of the 53rd season of off-road stadium motorcycle racing in the USA[1], the 2026 AMA Supercross championship was determined. And the winner was German born Kenny Roczen. It was a great season, with the winner only finalized on the results of the last round, Round 17.  And we are so happy for you Kenny!

Every sport has its nuances, and every season is different. The 2026 season was a great season, despite the absence of some great riders, not the least Australian Jett Lawrence (missed the whole season)[2] and American Eli Tomac (out for the latter part of the season.[3])

There are a lot of reasons why we are so happy for Kenny. Here’s ten of them.

#1 – Kenny had never won an AMA Supercross title

Kenny has completed 13 seasons of AMA Supercross [4] [5] – that’s longevity in itself – but until 2026 had now won a title. That’s 12 full seasons without a title.  That’ might crush some. But not Kenny!

There are other factors behind Kenny prior inability to win the AMA title, including significant crashes.

#2 – Kenny had come back from a serious injury

In Round 3 of the 2017 AMA season – Kenny suffered serios injuries in a crash. [6]   He was the Championship leader at the time.

Then midway through the main event of that third race he crashed, flew 30 feet from his bike and landed on the face of a jump. His left arm took the brunt of the impact.[7]

There was reasonable thought that Kenny’s career was over.  Then in January 2018 the headlines read:

11 surgeries and a year later, Ken Roczen is back [8]

It was his 5th season, and his first on a Honda. He had been runner up in the 2016 AMA Supercross title and had also just won his second AMA Motorcross title. In the eyes of any, he was favoured to win the 2017 AMA Supercross Title. [9]

So, he lost his 5th season due to that crash, and history suggests it took quite a few seasons to overcome that on his way back to being an AMA Supercross Champion eight seasons later. That’s tenacity!  Every athlete to has suffered a career (or life) threatening injury in sport would be proud of you Kenny.

This point was not lost on Kenny, who during his acceptance speech from the 2026 AMA Supercross podium, where he said what he had done should be a message of hope for other athletes in a similar situation. [10]

This is just a testament that you never give up and anybody at any age wherever you’re competing and you have anxiety you want to get it done but you have strange emotions that rob your energy your not alone. I have the same thing, but I don’t give up. I work on it daily and this is what, this is how pays of and you can do it too.—Kenny Roczen, acceptance speech after the 2026 AMA Supercross 450 cc title win.

#3 – Kenny is the oldest rider to win an AMA Supercross championship (450cc)

Age is a factor in open age class sport. Most athletes retire/leave this category before they turn 30. According to published records,[11] Kenny was born 29 April 1994, and turned 32 just over a week before the defining race. Even though the average age in this discipline is trending older, that’s much older than the average.

The average age of AMA Supercross race winners and champions is trending older, currently sitting at 27.02 years old for the 2020s. Historically, the average age of champions was closer to 23 during the 2000s and 24 in the 2010s.[12]

Table – Average age of Supercross Winners by Decade [13]

_________________________

Decade           Average Age

___________________________

2000s             23.59 yrs

2010s             24.70 yrs

2020s             27.02 yrs

_________________________

No athlete of Kennys age is likely to dispute – age may give you experience wisdom, but it is harder on the body to compete against younger athletes. That’s an adversity Kenny overcame. Here are the stats:

  • Oldest rider to win [14]an AMA Supercross title [15]
  • First rider in their 30’s to win [16]an AMA Supercross title [17]

#4 – Kenny had overcome a pattern of fading in races

Most were in awe of Kenny’s return and that was the focus during the first few years post his 2018 return to racing. However this focus was soon replaced by the apparent challenge that he was fading during races and the season. This was not a one-off situation. It plagued him the best part of the next decade. For example:

In 2019 –

Ken Roczen has been experiencing unexplained health problems for several weeks. To our knowledge, previous examinations have not revealed any new information as to what is causing the persistent fatigue and weakness.[18]

Battling an undiagnosed health issue throughout supercross, Ken Roczen believes the problem has resurfaced after facing increased fatigue during Southwick’s sixth round of the 2019 Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship over the weekend.[19]

In 2020 –

In today’s Honda press release, Roczen cited a need to rest and recover from his ongoing health issues, as well as focus on the coming birth of his first child, with his wife Courtney. After another supercross season spoiled by late-season health concerns, Roczen will now sit out for this next championship and focus on 2021.[20]

In 2021 –

Last off-season, Ken Roczen did everything he could to understand why he gets sick, drained, and lethargic during the season. He skipped the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship in 2021 to rest, then spent the off-season visiting doctors and trying to solve his issues. Then December came and another gnarly illness ended up keeping him off the bike for an entire month. He won Anaheim 1, but his season quickly crumbled. [21]

In 2022 –

Due to health-related issues, the German native will sit out of the remainder of the series and put his efforts towards recovering and preparing for the upcoming Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Championship. [22]

In 2023 –

I used to feel so good as a kid, and I used to be strong. Now with this virus in my immune system, a lot of the stuff was so out of my control. At first, you were second-guessing yourself because before you figured out that something was wrong, you kind of grind through some stuff. You’re thinking, “Man, I just have to get more fit, and I have to get better. Before you know it, you’ve had brain fog daily, and you feel fatigued and tired. You’re not recovering. That went on for a long, long time, and it was a nightmare. [23]

In 2024  –

Ken Roczen definitely didn’t have a brilliant day on the track during his comeback at the AMA Nationals. But instead of burying his head in the sand, he let fans know what was going on on his social media channels: “The good news is, I still know how to ride a dirt bike. The bad news is: Not for long, though, if I keep going like this.”…Roczen is currently struggling with his energy levels – a problem he was already aware of before the last race. [24]

The bottom line is Kenny has had health conditions that have held back his racing results post his return to racing in 2018.

Roczen has dealt with the effects of the Epstein-Barr virus since recovering from serious injuries in 2017 and ’18, although he has made progress at different times – including after sitting out the entire 2020 AMA Pro Motocross series. He was stricken by an unrelated illness at the end of calendar-year 2021 but was nonetheless able to take a surprise win at the first event. Unfortunately, he hasn’t felt like himself since then, a situation that was compounded by a bout with COVID-19 just after the January 22 San Diego round. Roczen hasn’t been able to put the issues behind him, and rather than risk a downward spiral in health and morale, he and his team have made the difficult decision for him to withdraw. During his hiatus, Roczen will seek professional treatment from specialists he has worked with in the past, including some in Europe. His exact return date will depend on how that process goes.[25]

Questions remain as to why it took so long to address them. None-the-less there were positive signs in the 2025 season:

There are other intangibles to Roczen’s game this year that provide even more hope. Glendale, while again not a win, packed more examples.

First, Ken is strong from start to finish. Even when he’s feeling bad, Ken is lethal early in a race. When he’s having problems, it shows up later. When he’s right he can maintain that pace to the end, and this year he’s been doggedly determined down the stretch. Ken hasn’t faded one bit.[26]

By 2026 the talk of his inability to finish a race strong;

The 31-year-old has been relatively vocal of late, questioning the narrative that he ‘fades’ as the 17-round series develops, which reflects a broader view of how the German export approaches the sport. Roczen is well-regarded for his explosiveness out of the gate and remains one of the strongest when it comes to early-race – and early-season – execution. That form, however, has proven difficult for the Progressive Insurance Cycle Gear Suzuki leader to maintain, [27]

Which was enough to fire him up, which was a positive sign. He hit back in 2026 with:

“So, I guess I get where they’re coming from, but the last time I faded in a season was 2022. Honestly, let it go… Let me do the talking out there. And then if I keep doing it, you can go right back to it, but as of right now there have been absolutely no signs, and I’m sick of hearing that, honestly.”

#5 – Kenny was on a least represented brand of the ‘Big Four’ in the competition

Kenny has been on a Suzuki for a few seasons now. Suzuki is arguably the least represented of the ‘Big Four’ Japanese brands in AMA Supercross of late.

In terms of overall rider count and number of factory-backed teams, Suzuki is the least represented brand among the major manufacturers in AMA Supercross. [28]

However, it has a stronger history than this suggests:

On pure AMA Championships (between the three classes) Kawasaki has won 25 times, Suzuki 12 times, Yamaha 9 times, KTM 8 times, Honda seven times and Husqvarna two times over the past 20 years. [29]

#6 – Kenny was on the only kick start bike on the starting line

Even more unique, the Suzuki bike Kenny won the 2026 AMA Supercross Championship on does not have electric start. Instead, in the traditional way, Kenny has to kickstart his bike. Every time he stalls it, crashes etc. etc. Which led to this recent nick-name ‘Kick-start Kenny’. Suzuki are the only full-size motorcross bikes that still rely on kickstarts.

Apparently they did experiment with an electric start prior to the 2025 season, but it was not a permanent feature. When asked about this Kenny was quoted as saying:

Yeah, it was tested, it broke and we have not revisited it yet, or it’s not been ready yet to throw it back on.[30]

#7 – Kenny came back from 31 points down during the 2026 season to win

To win from 31 points down is not only significant, it may be the greatest comeback in the sports history. Not by the number of points behind per se, but combined with the fact that the rider he had to beat to win was still on the starting line up each race.

Ken Roczen overcame a 31-point deficit with only a few rounds left in the season to capture the title in Salt Lake City. Experts widely noted that entering the final rounds with that large of a gap and closing it without your primary rival missing any events is almost unprecedented in modern Supercross.[31]

You can read summaries of other significant AMA Supercross comebacks here. [32]

#8 – Kenny was the first German born rider to win the title

Kenny joins a short list of riders born outside of America to win the AMA Supercross title,[33] [34] and the first from Germany.[35] You could see the national pride trackside with German flags being waved by his avid supporters.

#9 – Gracious in defeat, humble in victory

I describe Kenny as a great competition – gracious in defeat, humble in victory. Yes there is more to competition than this, but he has titles in various dsiciplines so that’s proven.  What I look for also are the things that other racers and their support teams hope for – respect. If you give respect, you get it back. From the crowd, from your peers and their teams. I understand that we are in ‘interesting times’ where being an ass-hole is for some their unique marketing position. That’s not going to last into the next phase of generational led human history.  Being a great competitor, which is an extension of being a good person, will.

#10 – Kenny was kind to us during a pre-race visit

My son and I went to visit Kenny in a pre-race pit meet and greet in Portland Seattle in Round 12 of the 2019 AMA Supercross season.

Just as we got to the front of the line to meet Kenny his team called the session over. It was a long way to come to get so close to miss out. Kenny was my son’s MX idol and I know he would be disappointed if we just let this happen. I spoke to Kenny and I could see he was torn between meeting his fan’s needs and his own race preparation needs. He chose to stay and chat with my son. He had my respect at that moment.

Conclusion

Since the race on 9 May 2026 Kennys achievement has been the subject of very happy discussions in our house. We are all happy for Kenny! It’s been a long and challenging road. It could have been smoother, but at the same time he could have given up on his ambition of winning this title. He didn’t. And he now adds AMA Supercross Champion to his trophy cabinet. But more importantly he has been a role model to athletes that you can overcome adversity – age, injury, setback, health challenges – provided you apply the traits that Kenny has over the time period needed. In Kenny’s case, 13 years. So happy for you Kenny!

Image credit – Christopher Schmidt at Wikimedia Commons.

References

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_AMA_Supercross_Championship

[2] https://www.mxlarge.com/news/lawrence-out-three-months

[3] https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/eli-tomac-focusing-recovering-hip-204930362.html

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_AMA_Supercross_Championship

[5] https://fthspatpress.com/35714/sports/roczen-becomes-oldest-monster-energy-ama-supercross-champion-in-series-history/

[6] https://www.supercrosslive.com/news/roczen-injured-in-hard-crash-at-anaheim-2/

[7] https://www.espn.com.au/racing/story/_/id/22024895/supercross-star-ken-roczen-makes-return-2018-season-one-year-11-surgeries-horrific-crash

[8] https://www.espn.com.au/racing/story/_/id/22024895/supercross-star-ken-roczen-makes-return-2018-season-one-year-11-surgeries-horrific-crash

[9] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Roczen

[10] https://www.instagram.com/reel/DYPlVMpgrHw/

[11] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Roczen

[12] https://pulpmx.com/2026/01/15/super-stats-supercross-is-trending-older/

[13] https://pulpmx.com/2026/01/15/super-stats-supercross-is-trending-older/

[14] https://fthspatpress.com/35714/sports/roczen-becomes-oldest-monster-energy-ama-supercross-champion-in-series-history/

[15] https://fthspatpress.com/35714/sports/roczen-becomes-oldest-monster-energy-ama-supercross-champion-in-series-history/

[16] https://racerxonline.com/2026/05/12/the-ways-ken-roczens-title-is-awesome

[17] https://racerxonline.com/2026/05/12/the-ways-ken-roczens-title-is-awesome

[18] https://mxnews-online.com/en/ken-roczen-nutzt-das-rennfreie-wochenende-zur-erholung/

[19] https://www.motoonline.com/au/fatigue-problem-reemerges-for-roczen-at-southwick/

[20] https://racerxonline.com/2020/08/10/450-words-ken-roczen-out-for-2020-ama-pro-motocross

[21] https://racerxonline.com/2023/01/07/between-the-motos-health-is-not-an-issue

[22] https://www.vurbmoto.com/mind-of-a-mechanic-ken-roczens-road-to-recovery/

[23] https://www.vitalmx.com/features/im-also-little-bit-afraid-retiring-ken-roczen-wsx-extending-his-career

[24] https://mxnews-online.com/en/ken-roczen-trotzt-gesundheitlichen-problemen/

[25] https://www.supercrosslive.com/news/roczen-pulls-out-of-2022-supercross-season/

[26] https://racerxonline.com/2025/02/04/metamorphosis-of-ken

[27] https://www.motoonline.com/us/why-the-signs-suggest-that-ken-roczen-wont-fade-in-2026/

[28] Google AI

[29] https://motocrossactionmag.com/who-is-really-the-winningest-brand-in-the-sport-all-the-winners-and-losers/

[30] https://gatedrop.com/roczen-explains-why-no-electric-start-yet-on-his-factory-suzuki/

[31] Google AI

[32] https://racerxonline.com/2026/04/24/all-time-supercross-title-comebacks

[33] https://mx1onboard.com/ama-supercross-foreign-riders-podiums-prado/

[34] https://racerxonline.com/2011/02/10/the-list-ten-best-imports

[35] https://www.redbull.com/int-en/ken-roczen-wins-ama-supercross-championship-2026

Ian King

The Wallabies Kiwi experiment

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In 2008 the Australian Rugby Union (ARU) employed a non-Australian to coach the national men’s team for the first time, making Australia possibly the first Tier 1 rugby nation in the professional era to do so.  This coach was Robbie Deans from New Zealand.   It was a move some called brave, but either way it raised eyebrows. Since then, the ARU has seen fit to engage two more foreign coaches, also from New Zealand. To date, our southern hemisphere rivals New Zealand and South Africa have not followed in this path.

Since 2008, New Zealand coaches have held Australian men’s national coaching positions for a combined eleven (11 years) of the last eighteen (18) years, or 61% of the years. Suffice to say they have been the dominant influence on the direction of the men’s national rugby team over the last two decades.

There is more than sufficient data to review the ARU’s decision to look overseas, and in particular to New Zealand, for coaching guidance.  Keep in mind that this decision has broader impacts than the scoreboard. It also reflects values around coach development and impacts opportunities for domestic coaches.

A statistical analysis of the Wallabies Kiwi coaches

The following is a statistical analysis of the Australian men’s national team coaches that hail from New Zealand.  The analysis focuses on

Robert Deans [1]

Robert Deans coached the Australian national men’s team during the period 2008 to 2013, or six (6) seasons. His win loss record with the Wallabies was 58.7%, making him the most successful of the three New Zealand coaches to coach Australia. [2] He also holds the record for the most tests coached by an Australin men’s national coach at 75 tests.

Against his former nation the All Blacks, Deans was 3 games out of 18 (17%).[3]

During his six-year tenure as the Wallabies national coach, Deans did not win a Bledisloe Cup during (0%), won one Rugby Championship (17%), and placed third in the only World Cup he presided over (0%).When Deans was appointed as the men’s national coach in December 2007, Australia’s international rugby ranking was 5th, and in the month of his resignation (July 2013) it was 3rd. [4]

Dave Rennie [5]

Dave Rennie coached the Australian national men’s team during the period 2020 to 2022, or three (3) seasons. His win loss record with the Wallabies was 36.4%, making him the least successful of the three New Zealand coaches to coach Australia. [6]

Against his former nation the All Blacks, Rennie was 1 game out of 7 (14%).[7]

During his three-year tenure as the Wallabies national coach, Rennie did not win a Bledisloe Cup during (0%), or Rugby Championship (0%), and did not preside over a World Cup (-%).When Rennie was appointed as the men’s national coach in November 2019 Australia’s international rugby ranking was 5th, and in the month of he left the role (January 2023) it was 6th. [8]

Joe Schmidt [9]

Joe Schmidt coached the Australian national men’s team during the period 2024 to 2025, or two (2) seasons. His win loss record with the Wallabies was 39.3%, making him the second least successful of the three New Zealand coaches to coach Australia.[10]

Against his former nation the All Blacks, Rennie was 0 game out of 4 (0%).[11]

During his two-year tenure as the Wallabies national coach, Schmidt did not win a Bledisloe Cup during (0%), or a Rugby Championship (0%), and did not preside over a World Cup (-%).

When Schmidt was appointed as the men’s national coach in January 2024 Australia’s international rugby ranking was 9th, and in the month of he left the role (mid 2026) it was 8th. [12]

Table 1 – Summary of success of the Australian Rugby’s New Zealand Coaches.

Coach

Win-Loss Record [13]

 Cup Results [14]

World Rugby Rank

# Yrs

 P W L D % Bled [15] RC RWC Start Finish Change

Dean

 6 75 44 29 2 58.7% 17% 1 0 5th 3rd

+2
Rennie

3

 33 12 18 3 36.4% 14% 0 n/a 5th 6th

-1
Schmidt *

2

 28 12 19 0 38.7% 0% 0 n/a 9th 8th

+1
AVERAGE *

3.7

 45 22 21 2 44.6% 10%

* Updated 31 July 2026

A statistical analysis of the Wallabies Australian coaches

The following table summarizes the win-loss record of the Wallabies Australian coaches during the ‘professional era’.[16]

Table 2 – A summary of the win-loss record of the Wallabies Australian coaches during the ‘professional era’. [17]

Years Wallaby Coach W-L %age
1997-2001 Rod Macqueen 79%
2001-2005 Eddie Jones 58%
2006-2007 John Connolly 64%
2013-2014 Ewen McKenzie 59%
2014-2019 Michael Cheika 50%
2023-2023 Eddie Jones 22%
Averages 55.3%

The average of the six (6) Australian coaches of the Wallabies during this period was 55.3%

A comparison between the Wallabies New Zealand and Australian Coaches

The following table compares the win-loss record of the Wallabies Australian coaches during the ‘professional era with the win-loss record of the Wallabies New Zealand coaches during the same era.

Table 3 – Comparison of the Wallabies Australian coaches during the ‘professional era with the win-loss record of the Wallabies New Zealand coaches during the ‘professional era’.

Origin of Coaches

 W-L %age

Wallabies New Zealand coaches

44.8%
Wallabies Australian coaches

55.3%

The verdict is in

With the completion of three coaching contracts in review, we have the results to form an comparative analysis of the decision by the Australian Rugby Union to select foreign coaches, and exclusively New Zealand coaches.

The New Zealand coaches average win-loss record is 44.6%, 11% lower than the 55.3% average for the Australian coaches.

A bigger picture look

To understand the role of the dominant New Zealand coaching influence in Australian national men’s coaching during the last twenty years, we can wider the lens and take a bigger picture look at the on-field results of the Wallabies since the game went ‘professional’ in 1996, thirty (30) years ago.

The following table and graph combine all Wallaby coaches’ performances during the professional era to date.

Table 4 – The combined chronological results of all Wallabies coaches during the ‘professional era’.

Years

Wallaby Coach

 W-L %age

1997-2001

Rod Macqueen

79%

2001-2005

 Eddie Jones

58%

2006-2007

 John Connolly

64%

2008-2013

 Robbie Deans

59%

2013-2014

 Ewen McKenzie

59%

2014-2019

 Michael Cheika

50%

2020-2023

 Dave Rennie 36%
2023-2023 Eddie Jones

22%
2024-2025 Joe Schmidt

39%

The data in this table is expressed in the graph below.

Figure 1 – The combined chronological results of all Wallabies coaches during the ‘professional era’.

 

It is reasonable to suggest there is a linear decline in win-loss records over the last thirty years, and origin of the coach does not appear to the cause of that trajectory.

Conclusion

The aim of this article is to compare the results achieved by foreign coaches hired by the Australian Rugby Union to the results achieved by domestic coaches.   The data suggests that the New Zealand coaches results are lower than the Australian coaches results, specifically in the win-loss record.

It is also important to note that the aim of this statistical analysis was to review the decision by the Australian Rugby Union to select foreign coaches, and exclusively New Zealand coaches. It is not to judge the coaching ability of the coaches involved, rather to look at the results during their time in Australia, in the Australian social, political and physical environment.

 

These coaches have all experienced greater success before arriving in Australia, and also afterward, for those coaches who have continued to coach.

The point was raised earlier that there may be broader implications for Australian rugby than the on-field results.  For example, the lost opportunities and lack of focus on domestic coaches and coaching development, to name one.

Since turning ‘professional’, Australian rugby during the last thirty years has slipped from number two (2nd) in international rankings to as low as tenth (10th), currently sitting in 8th. [18]

It is reasonable to conclude or suggest that the Australian Rugby Union has turned to arguably the greatest rugby nation in the world, New Zealand, for coaches in the hope to reverse this decline. It’s also reasonable to conclude is has not worked.

Some might say that the graph turning up recently is a positive sign. Getting excited about raising from 22% to 29% win-loss is questionable.

The question remains – if it’s not the coaches, what is the cause of this downward trajectory?

 

References

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robbie_Deans

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia_national_rugby_union_team_coaches

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bledisloe_Cup

[4] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Data:Men%27s_World_Rugby_rankings.tab

[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Rennie

[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia_national_rugby_union_team_coaches

[7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bledisloe_Cup

[8] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Data:Men%27s_World_Rugby_rankings.tab

[9] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Schmidt_(rugby_union) 

[10] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Schmidt_(rugby_union)

[11] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bledisloe_Cup

[12] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Data:Men%27s_World_Rugby_rankings.tab

[13] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia_national_rugby_union_team_coaches

[14] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rugby_Championship

[15] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bledisloe_Cup

[16] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia_national_rugby_union_team_coaches

[17] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia_national_rugby_union_team_coaches

[18] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Data:Men%27s_World_Rugby_rankings.tab

 

Ian King

Big Muscles, Busy Schedules – 24 years on…

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Recently I received this question about an article i wrote nearly a quarter of a century ago. It was a great question and deserved a great answer. I share it with you and trust you find value in this exchange.

“I’ve been training for almost 16 years now, but with the demands of becoming a licensed psychotherapist, running my own practice, and having a family, time has become pretty limited. “Big Muscles, Busy Schedules” was exactly the kind of two-day-per-week program I’d been looking for—so thank you for that!

I do have a question though: looking back after 24 years, would you make any changes to the program today? For instance, Stage 6 doesn’t include shoulder work, and after Stage 1 there aren’t any direct arm exercises. Considering the more recent insights from hypertrophy research—especially from people like Chris Beardsley—would you add or modify any movements, maybe include some isolation work?

Thanks so much for your time, and for all the great work you’ve done over the years!–Jacob, DE

Jacob – thank you for reaching out and great to hear you have found value in my article/program. I fully understand the added challenges of study, work, family etc. on one’s training. This is exactly what much of my ‘Get Buffed!’ writing is for, and I quote from my Get Buffed! book: “For the average drug free-got a job/go to school person, I recommend consider using…”

As to your questions, let’s get into it:

“Looking back after 24 years, would you make any changes to the program today?”

Absolutely there may be changes – but they may not be what you think or expect. Allow me to explain – I have written very few generic programs, relatively speaking. I have actually avoided writing generic programs for the first 20 years of my coaching, and it was only from 2000 that I realized the need to write a few. I have always, and I stress always, individualized programs for athletes. Very individual.

So, the challenge I have with generic programs is the way they are interpreted. They are general examples. They are not really written for an individual per se, and ideally once the value is found in them by the end user,I would prefer they take advantage of my extensive efforts through tools including but not liited to the current Get Buffed! four book sequel and shape these programs at least a little for themselves. As the Taoist saying goes regarding the fish and the fishing basket: “

The fish trap exists because of the fish. Once you’ve gotten the fish, you can forget the trap. The rabbit snare exists because of the rabbit. Once you’ve gotten the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words exist because of meaning. Once you’ve gotten the meaning, you can forget the words. Where can I find a man who has forgotten words so I can talk with him?”

So, I would prefer an end user who finds value in my generic programs move on, forget the generic program in the literal sense, and shape it to their needs.

In summary, I have some degree of embarrassment and concern about writing generic programs, for the fear many will be stuck on the program, and not the message. They are not, and cannot be, designed for anyone, as they are composites of imagination as to who the end user might be.

Hopefully this is not too deep or esoteric. I just wanted to express my reservations when asked to provide generic programs. Despite the number of generic programs that I have written for end user and coach education, I have only once in sport at the representative level provided a generic program, and that was a reflection of the budget, and a realization that what I might write may be better than what they would otherwise receive.

Now let’s go deeper on your question, breaking it up into bite size pieces:

“For instance, Stage 6 doesn’t include shoulder work…”

There is absolutely a time and place to remove any given muscle group, but that decision hopefully is individualized! So I would write that again in a program, 24 later, under appropriate circumstances. Are those your circumstances? I don’t know – that is why I have a dissonance with generic programs…

“…and after Stage 1 there aren’t any direct arm exercises…”

There is absolutely a time and place to remove any given muscle group, and I do it more times than you might imagine. In particular with athletes – there are relatively few (and note I said relatively few) competitive sports that require or benefit from an over-focus on arm size. Yes, I know, this is contrary to dominant trends. It’s akin to bench pressing in alpine skiing. The focus on the chest in the last decade or so – in particular in a country with 50 or so states…. – is insane. And the rise in torn biceps in athletes is also insane. And ironically, most athletes who tear their biceps did so in the pursuit of upper arm strength and size in excess of what I consider optimal for their sport. But what would I know? I have only been at this for 45 years…

There are no shortage of individuals (and I refer mainly to non-athletes) whose arm development gives the casual observer the impression they are huge – but a closer review reveals a trunk that is not much bigger than the arms…

It all comes back to what you are chasing. And some just want the instant gratification of arm isolation programs and that a life-style choice. I am not knocking it – I just want to put arm training in context.

“Considering the more recent insights from hypertrophy research…”

Now that opens up a whole new can of worms. A few points:

• ‘Research’, and I assume you mean from a ‘recognized academic institution’, is what is allowed to be selected as a study topic and published.

• I take a different approach to research – I consider it involves objective analysis as the primary requirement, not something that is the exclusive domain of the ‘ivory tower’.

• Historic analysis of ‘research’ influence on strength training provides an ‘interesting’ insight into the mandate of being ‘research compliant’. For example, through the 1970s and early 1980sif you did heavy loaded exercises (what we now call maximal strength training) you were engaging in dangerous and high risk of injury activity. The use of free weights was painted with the same brush. If you engaged in squats (the double leg bent knee type), you were stretching the ligaments of the knee and you should not squat. The lower back EMG studies showed little to no activity past a certain degree of flexion (they omitted to place the electrodes on any other muscles involved including the hamstrings…) and therefore you should not engage in forward flexion such as a deadlift. I could go on.

• ‘Research’ for the most part does not answer long term questions such as what should I do today that will optimize my training outcome in 40 year’s time.

So no, I am not ‘research compliant’. I wasn’t when the article and program was written in 2002, and I am still not now. Does that mean I am divisive of ‘research’? Not at all. I just take it with a grain of salt, except when I find a person is the average of the dozen or so undergraduate students and their long term goal is the 8 weeks duration of the study…(Yes, I am being facetious.)

To take this one step further, I seek to provide what the late US thinker Buckminster-Fuller is credited with calling ‘generalized principles. The aim is to provide guidance that does not need massive tweaking every tie there is a ‘trend’ or ‘research’ change. Which is why we are still talking about this program 24 years later….

“…would you add or modify any movements…?”

I may well do, but I would prefer to provide those tweaks on the basis of knowing more about the end user. I read a few years back in one of those ‘secret’ titled books about program design that a ‘fitness professional’ knows 80% of what they need to know before meeting the client, and only an additional 20% is gained upon meeting them. What a load of BS! Did this ‘author’ actually believe this, or was is a shot at an impressive marketing line? If they did believe it, God help their clients…

We can be better than this. And you, the client, deserve better that this.

‘Research’ or that ‘80%’ learnt by the ‘fitness professional’ does not answer questions such as:

• What is your age and gender?

• What is your maturation and aging status?

• How many hours a week do you work at your job? • Is your job blue (manual) or white (more sedentary) collar?

• How much stress is involved in your job?

• How long does it take you to travel to and from work?

• How many days a week do you work from home?

• How are your personal relationships going, including with any significant other?

• How many kids do you have?

• How old are your kids?

• What is your training history?

• What is your injury history?

• What equipment do you prefer to train on?

• What exercises do you prefer to do?

• What training methods do you prefer to do?

• What training equipment do you prefer to use?

• What results have you got from your training?

• What is the temperature, humidity, altitude and air quality where you live and train?

• What is the water quality, amount and frequency that you consume?

• What about your diet and nutritional supplements?

• What about your past and present medications

• What other health conditions are you at risk or suffer from?

• What is your personality and emotional status and how does this impact your choice of training location?

• What time of day do you get the best results from training? Listen, I am just warming up. But I hope you get the hint. ‘Research’ does not have those answers, and good luck if you believe your ‘fitness professional’ has 80% of all they need to know to program you before you even meet them….

In conclusion, it takes all types to shape our world. Some want a free or cheap program that will meet a lot of their needs. Other will want a bit of help, some with their motivation, or accountability, others with some more superficial guidance. When I fully individualize training program for an athlete or client, ideally with the prospect of being involved in a primary role of a decade or two, I take all the time I need to match the program variables to the individual. My generic programs are great, and in some cases may be better than what some may provide you in their best interpretation of an ‘individualized’ programs. But when comparing apples to apples, my individualized programs, or you tweaking my generic programs relying on the education I have provided in books and articles during the last five decades, is better.

Ian King

Reflections of a Dad

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When I receive course submissions such as the one below, in response to a unit in the KSI Child to Champion Course, its rewarding to know the lessons shaped over 45 years of coaching and shared in this educational tool for parents and coaches of the young athlete is worth the effort.

This is what this dad shared with me…

Unit 2 – The purpose of sport

I totally agree with Ian’s approach and message here. If you think about the big picture, how many kids are going pro? Or Division 1? Very few. But that shouldn’t be the goal. If your kid plays a sport growing up, and comes away with it healthier, feeling good about themselves, made a bunch of friends, memories, learned lessons that carry over to life etc, but never play in college or beyond, then in my mind it was a total success.

Absolutely. At 49 years old, I’m amazed by the impact of the lessons I learned from the best (and worst) coaches in my life. In terms of ‘positive’, I had an amazing sensei when I was 7, and the best hockey coach I ever had was when I was 11. I got so spoiled I thought all my coaches would be like that (they weren’t) But what I took away from just those two men was amazing, and shaped so much of who and what I am today. It was a huge thrill that I was able to take my older son to that same sensei when he was 8.

When I find a youth sports coach in any sport that makes the kids’ self-esteem a priority, I work to maximize the amount of time my kids spend with them. The opposite can be tougher (minimizing time spent about bad coaches), but it’s still something I do.

I don’t think I’ve seen many coaches that are malicious, and actually set out to humiliate kids, etc (though I’m sure there are some malformed people out there) but I do see a great many coaches that pay lip service to ‘having fun, creating a fun environment’, etc, but when push comes to shove, parents are yelling, heat of the game, they revert back to ‘just win baby’ mentality. I will admit that while I’ve never bought into the youth coaching ‘win at all costs’ thing, I have caved to parental pressure and changed my approach for the worse. Especially when I was young.

I’m going to talk to both of my sons today about their mindset. How they approach each practice, game, training session, etc, and focus on how they see themselves, what they’re capable of, etc. Prioritizing their self-esteem, that growth mindset, that it’s not all about the scoreboard, etc.

I think this section should be required reading for youth coaches, gym teachers, anyone working with kids in a sport/training environment.-John, USA

This has got it all – relating to the message through personal experiences that have seen the highs and lows of youth sport, living through it again with his kids, and being inspired to act in the now to shape a better outcome for the next generation.

And that response was just to one of the early units, in a course with over 60 units.

Thanks dad John for sharing those well considered reflections!

Learn more about how we are helping parents and coaches of the young athlete here.

Ian King

34 year ago…

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A few weeks ago another athlete reached out for a phone chat. They wanted to say thank you for you contribution to their sporting career. The last time we met and sport was 34 years ago.

He also spoke proudly of the reports and other printed information I had prepared and given him back in the day, and kindly offered to send them to me so I could obtain a copy. After all, computers had just arrived in 1992 – they are very simple, more like glorified type-setting devices – but emails had not, an internet as we know know it and cell phones were even further away.

I am always touched by athletes who care enough to express gratitude, and I told them that. I also took the time to catch up on their life, and there were some lessons for me.

  1. Show gratitude – forever

I know it sounds basic however I do my best to do this, and I appreciate athletes who also do this. I am humbled by the actions of some of the athletes, who work hard to find me over a quarter of a century later, as I realize they may have exceeded their teacher in this regard.

  1. I need to be better

I learnt during this chat that he had a serious, life impacting injury later in the seasons that I had prepared him for. Although he was in an Australian Institute of Sport squad, there were higher levels of squads above that, and he did not receive the level of service that these higher level squads were given. I did not recall his injury, and had no involvement in his rehab – which was tough for me to learn.

With all due respect to my sports medicine colleagues of that era, I typically took a responsible to assist towards an optimal outcome of an injury athlete.  I was under the pump so to speak with the higher-level squads (and other sports) in that era, but I should have done more for him

  1. Theories leave a paper trail

In the paperwork this athlete shared with me I took note of certain items that showed my long commitment to certain beliefs, including and listed alphabetically:

Clean skins

I have used the words ‘clean skins’ to describe the athletes I ‘inherited’ in the 1980s and 1990s who had never done physical preparation before.

When I first started professionally training athletes in the early 1980s, I got what I now call clean skins. These were athletes that were great at their sport (typically at the top of their sport provincially, nationally, and internationally) yet has never done what I call dryland or physical preparation. Others now instinctively default to the less-than-optimal term ‘strength & conditioning’…That’s right – never ever done anything more than non-specific fitness training run by their coach. So, what I got to learn from and observe were bodies where the only collateral damage to their bodies was what playing their sport had done. I am talking about Olympians, and captains of national teams included.  Yes, their bodies had collateral damage, but it was directly correlated with their position in their sport. [1]

Here’s a statement in this 1992 communication that confirmed that this reality:

If you commence training some muscles for the first time e.g. shoulder joint muscles, you will need to learn to stretch these joints specifically.[2]

Predict into and plan for the future

A mindset I teach athletes and coaches is what it takes to be great, to be the champion today, dose not stand still. To maintain dominance in sport, we need to anticipate and plan for what the sport may be like moving forwards.

You can see this in my 1992 report to the athlete:

Plan for the [their sport]  of the future – it will be faster, more skillful, the players bigger, stronger, faster……. [3]

Recognizing the sub-qualities of strength

In the 1980s and early 1990s the greatest challenge in strength training for sport in Austarlia was to overcome the negative attitudes athletes had towards strength training. Yes, I know, that’s hard to imagine. Note the references to this:

It is important to note that the term strength i s used t o describe all types o f strength – maximal strength, speed-strength (including explosive power) and strength endurance…. Whilst different players play different styles o f [their sport] and different positions have varied strength requirements, don’t make the mistake that has been made by many players in the past, largely from poor advice given – get strong! Strength is not a dirty word – just make sure that you are developing the correct type of strength in the correct muscle groups.

Now that the world, including Australian athletes, have over-reacted, post 2000 in particular I have felt compelled to take the opposite approach – counselling against the over-reliance on strength and strength training. And that has happened in the span of just a decade or so.

Don’t assume, as an athlete, that strength training holds your salvation! Strength training only holds your salvation if lack of the specific strength qualities needed in your sport is truly your number one limiting factor to enhanced performance. And in my opinion, it rarely is. Technique, tactics and selected psychological traits rate higher in my opinion as the limiting factor in most athletes, rather than strength.

So when you strength train, do it in context – balance it relative to your limiting factors i.e. what stands between you and the next step of greatness.  Prioritize the most importance or weakest link, that which will have the greatest impact now on your performance.  And when you do strength train – do it well.  Do what you need to perform, not look good relative to the model of the bodybuilding physique[4]

Relationship between strength and endurance

In the 1980s and early 1990s developing an ‘aerobic base’ in the off-season was the dominant paradigm.

There has been a traditional bias towards gaining an ‘aerobic base’ at the commencement of the general preparation phase – in all sports, all the time, with all athletes.  Is this based on fact?  I suggest not.  I suggest it is a myth.  Yes, there will be times when this method is applicable, and there will be times when it won’t be. 

My breaking of this ‘aerobic base’ rule has attracted a lot of flak, as would any paradigm shifter.  I was wrong. It can’t be done.  This is the way we have always done it.  It has to be done this way. [5]

I wrote my report in 1992 for this athlete and their squad in this environment.

The relationship between strength and endurance is becoming more clearly

understood. During periods of priority strength training, endurance training needs to be minimized and well controlled. Failure to achieve a balance between the two will have a greater negative effect on strength than endurance. [6]

A point of significance worth noting was that one of my ‘co-consultants’ in this athletes squad was one of the very consultant who retaliated against my stance against the sanctity of the aerobic base.  When I say I have been stoned and burnt at the stake metaphorically:

I have fallen on my sword and been burnt on the stake a lot of times in the last 30 years. Not because I want to be right, but if I feel the dogma isn’t serving the athlete or the people, why go on with it? [7]

I say it because it is real, and one of those moments was because I took a stance against the aerobic base myth, partly based on my personal and professional conclusions, and partly because the ‘interference’ conclusions raised in research.

The Sports Science section in the May issue of Sportsmed News is

characterized by poor attention to detail and again, a lack of science.  Had the author (lan King) invested sufficient time in collecting his ideas… There continues to be a paucity of sports science reaching the readers of Sportsmed News and the content in future issues must be improved; reliance on “theories based on tradition” (Sportsmed News May 1996,p7) is not science – it is handed-down information based on the guess-work and hit-and-miss efforts of others. Sports Science is evolving at a phenomenal pace and your readers deserve better. [8]

Yet, in the very same sports squad that this athlete was part of, my strength training programs were paired with an ‘endurance’ program based on this very ‘aerobic base’. Not only is it difficult to produce optimal results with conflicting guidance, irrespective of all other physical quality training including strength, how does an athlete actually ‘convert’ their long distance and interval training to ‘speed’ during the pre-season, in a way that results in dominating in speed during the season proper?

Well done xxxx – concentrate on your speed over the shorter distances in the next few months – Off season report for this athlete[9]

No-one can suggest this quote or the endurance programs provided were me demonstrating a ‘poor research’ approach. It is factual. And the athletes and team in this sport who were able to fully follow my more encompassing athlete preparation guidance won a number of significant championships during the 1990s…but of course, that is not ‘research’, my apologies, just poor ‘empirical’ information.

Experiences like this led me to share the below:

I became known as a person who was not that scientific. But guess what? The athlete standing on the podium didn’t give a …. rat’s ass that I wasn’t very academic or that I’d forgotten how to pronounce an anatomical term. They really didn’t care. So, I don’t mind being considered as unacademic, because my role, my niche, my gift, is to help the elite athlete become successful beyond their own expectations. There’s no correlation with my academic qualifications. [10]

When an athlete is on the podium, you think they care whether what they did was in the latest scientific journal. There is no correlation between science and what happens to performing sport at the elite level. [11]

There is no correlation between the podium and science – in other words, that a Gold medalist is not likely to be backed by more science than a Silver medalist, and who in turn is not likely to be backed by more science than a Bronze medalist.  Well, at least, not the ones I help put on the podium. [12]

I understand I am expected to be apologetic for the heretical stance I have and continue to take – putting the athlete before the professional reputation of academics who recommend training based on the very thing they virtual-signaled me for – lack of research.

But I don’t think I will. And I don’t believe the athletes who have stood on the podium, or the teams that have won Championships are losing too much sleep about that.

Relationship between strength and flexibility

There has been one constant in my professional career – the value I have placed on flexibility this has led to very clear and effective theories about the role and application of flexibility training. That the post 1995 training world has stepped further away from these theories that I developed in the 1980s has not changed that position.

Flexibility and strength training have also suffered misinterpretation. If you increase your volume of training by adding strength training, you will need to increase your stretching… The factor that will influence your flexibility the most – either negatively or positively – is whether you are doing enough flexibility training of the correct type. [13]

Relationship between strength and skill

One of the key reasons strength training was rejected in Australia by sports coaches, athletes and academics until about the mid 1990s (this phenomenon existed in other countries such as the US, they simply moved through them at an earlier year) was the fear of being ‘muscle bound’.

This a valid conclusion I suggest, at least in the way strength training was conduced in the 1960s and 1970s:

Between 1960 and 1970 many leading sports coaches in the western world gave strength training a go and found it was causing their athletes to become muscle bound (stiff) and resulted in increased injuries. So, they stopped, concluding that strength training was bad for sport.

They were right with the way they were doing it- it was not optimal. It took another 2-3 decades for the sporting world to learn that there are many different variables in strength training that when manipulated in varying combinations created diverse results. And some of these were better than others for any given athlete at any given time. [14]

However, I felt I was providing the 1980s and 1990s athletes with a more optimal form o strength training, I needed to encourage them to overcome the negative recent history of the impact of strength training on skill.

Another traditional attitude in [their sport] is that strength will decrease skill. Strength training has the potential to enhance many skills, and the finer skills which it has minimal impact o n it certainly doesn’t have a negative impact on. If you wish to retain or improve skill – you need t o train that exact movement! [15]

Post 2000 the overreaction to strength training, at the expense of other athletic components, let me to counsel in reverse:

Many athletes get a warm feeling from the muscle mass and strength increases from strength training. In part because of the social rewards placed on ‘getting buffed’, and in part because it gives them a feeling of being a warrior. There is no correlation between muscle mass and or non-specific (gym) strength that trumps optimal technical and tactical development. More likely, you will see a decline in technique if your dryland adaptations contest skill execution. [16]

Relationship between strength and speed

During the 1989 and early 1990s, strength training was not used by athletes in Australia to develop speed. In fact, very few athletes – including elite athletes – were given any speed training. What was done was more endurance, interval training. Hard to believe?

In 1999, an athlete who I had cared for since our first meeting after he graduated high school, was at a World Cup. He approached the coach responsible for their physical training, and asked if he could have a supervised speed session. In response, based on what the athlete shared with me, this national team physical coach said words to the effect:

‘You don’t need to do speed training, You get your speed from the gym. But if you feel you need to, run up and down that grassed area, and I will watch you from the roof top (of the local licensed premises)…’

This ‘interesting’ phenomenon where even speed-strength sport athletes were denied either strength or speed training or both was what I was countering when I wrote this in my 1992 report:

From a historical perspective it has been believed that forwards need to be stronger than backs. When one considers the relationship between strength and speed, one may recognize the need for greater strength. [17]

Strength tests do not measure your ability to play your game

In the 1980s I became concerned that the advent of strength testing in Australia was being used to inappropriately select athletes for teams or squads. For example, in 1989 I was in a national team selection discussion where the head coach was using my testing results to justify his desired selection. I did all I could to negate this direction.

It is also important to note that strength testing does not measure your ability to play [their sport] – but rather, measures qualities that contribute to success i n [their spor]. Whilst different players play different styles of [their sport] and different positions have varied strength requirements… [18]

Think for yourself

My consistent message to athletes and coaches is think for yourself.

But at this stage, it’s still considered a little bit naughty for a person to form their own opinion, or for a person like myself to teach you to form your own opinion, but it’s a little bit naughty. By now you’ve realized that that’s what I do, and I believe it is the most effective way to act as a professional as well as live your life. And I also believe that if you’re intuitively smart, that your conclusions will be confirmed by inverted comma science at a later date, as a number of mine have. So, I didn’t read a book and say, that’s the belief I want to have. I didn’t go to a seminar and heard a speaker and was so influenced by it that I thought, well, that’s the belief I want to have [19]

At the end of the day, all I really ask you to do is think and ask yourself the question, what’s best for them now? What’s best now? What’s best now? What’s best now? Never assume, never apply a stereotypical or generic concept. Always question it. And even if you don’t have the answer now, guess what? The fact that you’ve raised the question will give you a chance of having the answer in one day. If you never ask the question, you will never get the answer. [20]

You can see this was there in 1992:

Don’t blindly follow the leader’ in your training – think about what you are doing. [21]

Title

I signed that 1992 document off with…

lan King, Consultant – Physical Preparation of the Athlete [22]

I have written about the options and history of a job descriptions as far back in the 1990s, through to more recent times.

I am not supportive of  the  term strength and conditioning…I believe the term ‘physical preparation’ is a better term.  Athletic preparation another.[23]

Is there a better term than ‘strength and conditioning’?   Yes, I believe that the words ‘physical preparation’ is a more appropriate term. [24]

In the 1980s, I  forged a career in Australia that did not exist. The role did not exist, and there was no job title. What would I call myself?  I looked around the world for guidance and found two dominant influences – the United States National Strength & Conditioning Association (NSCA) and an Eastern European perspective on athlete training by Tudor Bompa, whose 1983 book ‘The Theory and Methodology of Training’ was one of the most influential books I was exposed to in that decade.

The answers and conclusions I reached from my search for a professional job title continue to shape the world in various ways.   With a growing number using the term ‘physical preparation coach’, it’s timely to share the origin and intent of this term. In this article, I achieve this through consideration of cultural influences, sports history, and my personal experiences. [25]

Learn more about the history of this title or role description in this article series. [26] [27]

Conclusion

I want to say thank you to the athlete who triggered this article. Thank you for trusting me 34 years ago. Thank you for reaching out, for your gratitude. I know we could have done more for you back in the day. However ,it is never too late – I will be reaching out to you for an in-person consultation to make amends and meet my commitment to the athlete – for life.

 

References

[1] King, I., 2023, I miss the clean skins, Leondo #14, 14 Sep 2023

[2] King, I., 1992, AIS [their sport] Off-season Training Program – Strength Training and Strength Testing Report, 22 Dec 2022

[3] King, I., 1992, AIS [their sport] Off-season Training Program – Strength Training and Strength Testing Report, 22 Dec 2022

[4] King, I., 2004, Get Buffed! III, Introduction

[5] King, I., 1997, Winning & Losing, p. 19-20

[6] King, I., 1992, AIS [their sport] Off-season Training Program – Strength Training and Strength Testing Report, 22 Dec 2022

[7] Casey, Sean, 2011, Interview with the expert – Ian King – Part 1 of 2, Casey Performance, March 02, 2011

[8] xxx, x., 1996, Letters to the Editor, Sportsmed News, xxxx1996 (full reference withheld in respect)

[9] Provided by the fitness consultant

[10] King, I., 2010, Barbells and Bullshit – Challenging your thinking, Pt 1of 10 – How to think and learn

[11] King, I., 2011, Child to Champion, Cape Cod MA USA, 4 November 2011 (Seminar/Video)

[12] King, I., 2020, In theory this should, Off the Record #124, 21 Oct 2020

[13] King, I., 1992, AIS [their sport] Off-season Training Program – Strength Training and Strength Testing Report, 22 Dec 2022

[14] King, I., 2020, Stereo-typing training, Off the Record #115, 8 Sep 2020

[15] King, I., 1992, AIS [their sport] Off-season Training Program – Strength Training and Strength Testing Report, 22 Dec 2022

[16] King, I., 2023, Supercross Super injured, Blog, 23 May 2023 https://kingsports.net/supercross-super-injured/

[17] King, I., 1992, AIS [their sport] Off-season Training Program – Strength Training and Strength Testing Report, 22 Dec 2022

[18] King, I., 1992, AIS [their sport] Off-season Training Program – Strength Training and Strength Testing Report, 22 Dec 2022

[19] King, I., 2012, KSI Coaching Program Level 2 Foundations, Unit 4 – Theory of flexibility development, (Video) 17 May 2012

[20] King, I., 2013,  Lines of movement, Presentation at Tufts University,  Boston, MA, USA, 12 March 2013

[21] King, I., 1992, AIS [their sport] Off-season Training Program – Strength Training and Strength Testing Report, 22 Dec 2022

[22] King, I., 1992, AIS [their sport] Off-season Training Program – Strength Training and Strength Testing Report, 22 Dec 2022

[23] King, I., 1997, Winning and Losing, Ch. 16 – The strength & conditioning coach, p. 87

[24] King, I., 1999, So you want to become (Book), p. 16-17

[25] King, I., 2025, What’s in a name? Pt 1 – Origin and intent of the term physical preparation coach, (Blog), 16 May 2025

[26] King, I., 2025, What’s in a name? Pt 1 – Origin and intent of the term physical preparation coach, (Blog), 16 May 2025

[27] King, I., 2025, What’s in a name? Pt 2 – Considering the bigger picture of physical preparation, (Blog), 30 May 2025

 

 

Ian King

I wonder if these coaches care

/by

I was in the equivalent of a Home Depot in Australia about a year ago. A chain of stores by the name Bunnings. I sought the assistance of one of the workers in the store. I noted his height and could not help myself – I asked him if he had used it in sport.

About an hour later we wrapped the conversation. I learnt a lot. I learnt he was a talent-identified athlete, selected in national junior squads, played overseas including the US – until his injuries forced very premature retirement. I was struck by one particular statement. He said during his short career he found himself asking the question:

I wonder if these coaches care whether I can bend over and pick up my kids when I get older… and now I can’t.

As anyone familiar with my work knows that statement is very close to home – you can this in Theory #11 and #117 in Legacy 2nd Ed Vol 1

And that’s because I want a long career in sport. I want you to LeBron James for 21 years. And that’s five Olympic cycles, 20 years. That’s at the top. That’s what I want. And then I still want you to be able to play with your kids 20 years later. That’s the difference. [1]

And now he was having kids and had concerns for them in sport….And, he struggles to bend over and pick them up…

I excitedly told him about all my learnings in this area and that I could give him access to some videos…

Then I felt the guilt. I had not done enough. I needed to be able to give him something more concise. This has burnt me for the last year, and now I am making amends.

I have worked to create and make available an educational program that I hope can help the parents and coaches of the young athletes that have a nagging feeling that is must be a better way – and are looking for guidance to find that way.

Do you have children or coach children in sport? If so, you may find value in this latest offering. If not, I understand. After all, according to Ben Sasse, former US Senator of the great state of Nebraska (2015-2023)… and (who is tragically battling late stage cancer)

One of the unexpected by-products of the digital age is Americans are “having less sex and making fewer babies.” [2]

Fortunately, my life’s work is not focused on what popular or trending. After all, I was focused on strength training in the 1980s when most athletes and coaches were led to believe it would make you muscle bound and injured.

In fact, history has shown that typically the topics I focus on lead a renaissance of interest…

What I took too long to say was I understand and apologize if I have taken up your time on a subject of no interest to you – the athlete preparation of the young athlete, 0-18 years of age.

I spent my first two professional decades, between 1980 and 1999, with an almost exclusive focus on the adult athlete.  Once we began to build a family, I realized the gap in my competency, and this was a failing to serve my children.  I had been moved by the saying:

The cobbler’s children have no shoes.[3]

I had seen it in too many other professionals’ lives and didn’t want to make that mistake. After all, what athlete deserved  more attention than my own children.

So, I set out as a serious student of the athlete preparation of the young athlete. I did have the benefit of my prior 20 years.

Firstly, I was exposed to the work Dr. Tudor Bompa, a Romanian who immigrated to Canada, and published what I still believe is the best book ever on the theory of athlete development, in his 1983 Theory and Methodology of Training. I read his books, attended his presentations, met personally for discussions, and even shared the stage in a speaking engagement. My appreciation of his contribution runs through all my published works.

I also was fortunate enough also to have spent 10 of those early years working and collaborating with a former Hungarian who emigrated to Canada by the name of Dr. István Balyi. When we first met in 1989 in Canada, I had not heard of him. By the turn of the century his reputation as a world leader in long-term athlete preparation was taking shape. By 2010, the acronym LTAD had become an industry buzzword, one of those must quote line where nothing changes, just your ability to say the words.

After two decades of adult coaching and one additional decade focused on research and application of training the young athlete, I began sharing what I had learnt in 2010 onwards.  As I explain in Theory #13  of my recent book Legacy 2nd Ed Vol 1 – – A decade of testing:

… the concepts that I typically developed over a decade and then shared with the world …. [4]

I do normally refine my concepts for about five to ten years before talking about them. So, I don’t rush them to the market. [5]

The pattern I have established is test and refine a training concept or innovation for about a decade before sharing it as a recommended way.[6]

From 2010 onwards I conducted a series of presentations in various countries, teaching parents, coaches of the young athlete, and the young athletes themselves, what I had leant. [7]  [8]  [9]  [10]  [11]  [12]  Whilst still continuing to apply and research in this area.

Now in 2026, over a quarter of a century after I set out on this journey, I believe I have earned the right to share what I have learnt.

For those who are genuinely interested in improving their ability to serve the young athlete – as a parent and or coach – I welcome you to share this journey as we formulate an online course like no other to serve this specific niche.

Why? Because as I explain in Theory #18 of Legacy 2nd Ed Vol 1….

I owe it to the athlete

To bring you into this…

We owe it to the athlete

This raises the question – where is the world going? If I was to predict the future based on the current plots on the graph – I would say we are heading into an undesirable direction.  I have seen nothing to date to suggest otherwise. 

This is bad news for some, good news for others. Those who stand to lose include the athletes and their families who are hurt by the lost opportunities of their sons and daughters, brothers and sisters.

Those who stand to gain include the injury treatment and rehabilitation sector (doctors, surgeons and physical therapists in particular).

Another party who will gain are those who master the KSI way. It’s getting increasingly easier to provide a superior alternative to the average. However, at what cost to the athlete?  This is a self-serving benefit from which I take no joy.[13] 

We do today what others will do tomorrow. Why? Because we innovate ruthlessly in pursuit of the answer to the question ‘What is the best way to train?….[14]

In creating this educational program, I am making amends to the athlete I spoke about above, who never got be play adult sport. And to all the other young athletes, parent and coaches who believe there is a better way but not sure what that is.  And I am reaching out to all current and future young athletes, their parents and their coaches.

The Child to Champion Course was built for you.

 

References

[1] King, I., 2025, Building a body that lasts, Kent UK, Wed 8 Oct 2025 (Seminar)

[2] https://abcnews.com/Politics/book-excerpt-ben-sasses-hate-heal/story?id=58506498

[3] This saying is explained by Google AI as a mid-16th century proverb indicating that a person with a specific skill or expertise often neglects to apply that skill for their own family or personal benefit. It highlights the irony where a professional is too busy serving others to take care of their own needs.

[4] King, I., 2013, Report #1: Keys to success in coaching athletes, King Sports International

[5] King, I., 2016, A coach’s guide to preventing, identifying, managing, and rehabilitating lower back injuries, SWIS Presentation, Canada

[6] King, I., 2025, What’s in a name? Pt 1 – The origin and intent of the term physical preparation coach, (Blog  www.kingsports.net), 16 May 2025

[7] King, I., 2011, Child to Champion, Brisbane, AUS, 14 March 2011 (Seminar/Video)

[8] King, I., 2011, Child to Champion, Brisbane, AUS, 14 March 2011 (Seminar/Video)

[9] King, I., 2014, Child to Champion, Barrie, Ontario, CAN,10 April 2014, (Seminar/Video)

[10] King, I., 2014, Child to Champion, Cape Cod MA USA,13 April 2014, (Seminar/Video)

[11] King, I., 2014, Child to Champion, Cape Cod MA USA, 21 November 2014 (Seminar/Video)

[12] King, I., 2017, Child to Champion Seminar, Cape Cod MA, USA Thu 9 Nov 2017 (Seminar/Video)

[13] King, I., 2011, KSI Coaching Program L1 Legacy Course, Ch. 34- Concerns for the world of physical preparation

[14] King, I., 2023, The Between Sets Newsletter The KSI Newsletter No 222 Dec 202-3Jan 2024