ASCA Podcast #57 - Dr. Duncan French

Dr. Duncan French is currently the Vice President of Performance at the UFC Performance Institute and has over 20 years of experience working with elite professional and Olympic athletes. Prior to joining the UFC, French was the Director of Performance Science at the University of Notre Dame, USA. Before residing in the US, French was a Technical Lead for Strength & Conditioning at the English Institute of Sport. He has worked three full Olympic cycles, and has been the national lead for strength and conditioning to both Great Britain Basketball and more recently Great Britain Taekwondo’s Olympic program. As a strength and conditioning coach French has coached a host of Olympic, World Championship, and Commonwealth Games medalists, as well as world-record holders from a variety of different sports. For 3 seasons French served as the Head of Strength & Conditioning at Newcastle United Football Club in the Barclays English Premier League. French has authored or co-authored 60 peer-reviewed scientific manuscripts and seven book chapters. He currently serves as an editorial board member for the Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research. QUOTES “We work with fighters to help them plug the holes they may have in the preparation” “Is it reach and range or their weight that we need to pursue to get a fighter in the right weight class?” “The technical/tactical training has to set the agenda and around that you plug in complementary work” “We don’t want to take the wild out of the stallion with athletes” “If you can build an inter-disciplinary team around an athlete, their potential to improve performance is vast” “You have to respect the athlete and what they know and how they feel” SHOWNOTES 1) From the “boonies” in the UK to the UFC 2) PhD work and the effect of catecholamines on strength training 3) The UFC PI formations and its role in the wider MMA community 4) Finding the right weight class for a fighter 5) Concurrent training and its role in MMA 6) Setting up a training week for an athlete with concurrent training principles 7) What can other sports take from the UFC PI 8) Multi-disciplinary versus inter-disciplinary teams, circular casuality and putting the athlete at the center of the conversation 9) Characteristics of inter-disciplinary teams and being in a people industry 10) The role of a sports scientist in an inter-disciplinary team 11) Reverse spinning heel kicks and recovery breathing PEOPLE MENTIONED William Kraemer Andrea Hudy Bo Sandoval Gavin Pratt Greg Haff Forrest Griffin Brian Ortega Jade Jones Mladen Jovanovic