Last week, I was watching a group of players warm up before a game.

They did all the usual stuff — light jogs, stretches, a few stick handling drills.

But when the game started, you could see it immediately.

Their legs looked heavy. Their first steps looked stuck in mud.

These kids weren’t out of shape. They were strong, conditioned, and had put in hours in the gym.

So what’s the problem?

Here’s the thing:

Being strong is just the beginning, it’s the nervous system that drives performance.

If your brain doesn’t fire fast, your body holds back.

The nervous system controls how quickly muscles contract, how much force they generate, and how rapidly they can repeat it.

Want a quicker first step? That’s a nervous system job.

Want to explode out of a squat into a jump? Nervous system.

Want to stay powerful in the third period when everyone else is gassed? Again — nervous system.

If you only train for bigger muscles, you’re only tapping into about 30% of your true athletic potential.

That’s why some athletes are strong in the gym, but slow on the ice or on the field.

Where Athletes Go Wrong With Speed & Power

Most athletes never think about their nervous system when they train.

The focus stays on lifting heavier, grinding harder, and adding more reps. That work builds strength, but it leaves a gap. Without the system firing, strength never turns into speed or power.

You see it in the way players run sprints. Instead of practicing sharp, all-out bursts, they grind through them like another conditioning drill. The nervous system never gets to fire at full speed.

The same thing happens in the weight room. Athletes push the bar up, rack it, and move on. They skip the lowering and the pauses that build control, stability, and the ability to transfer force.

Each of these habits pulls athletes further from the speed and power they’re chasing. Sprint sessions become conditioning blocks. Lifts miss the very phases that prepare the nervous system to unleash more.

And the gap only grows wider. Strength keeps climbing in the gym, while explosiveness on the ice or field stays stuck in place.

How to Tell If Your System Is Firing

Before you can train the nervous system, you need to know where you stand. Think of it like a dashboard. If you never check the gauges, you’re guessing whether the engine is ready or not.

That’s what simple tests are for. They don’t just give you numbers — they reveal how well your system can recruit muscle in real time.

Start with the vertical jump. Stand still, load, and launch. The height isn’t just about legs — it’s a snapshot of how quickly your brain can call muscle fibers into action.

Then try the reactive strength index (RSI). Step off a box, hit the ground, and spring back up. Divide the height of your jump by the time your feet spent on the floor. A higher score means your system is wired to react fast instead of soaking in contact.

Finally, pick up a med ball. Sit down or stand tall, then drive it forward with everything you have. That release shows how much neural drive you can put into your upper body when it matters.

Athletes who track these numbers often light up when they see the difference. For the first time, they realize speed and power aren’t just about muscle. They’re about how fast the system can fire.

Unlocking the Other Two-Thirds of Your Potential

Every lift has three phases.

• Lowering under control (eccentric).
• Holding steady (isometric).
• Exploding upward (concentric).

Most athletes only train the last one. The visible part. The push, the jump, the drive. That focus builds strength, but it leaves two-thirds of your potential as an athlete untouched.

Here’s why that matters.

The nervous system only lets you move as fast and as powerfully as it feels safe. If it senses weakness or instability, it throttles performance to protect you.

Training eccentric and isometric phases builds that sense of safety. It teaches the system you can control the load, stabilize under tension, and transfer force without risk.

Once that confidence is in place, the nervous system unlocks more of the concentric phase. The explosion becomes sharper because it’s backed by stability and control.

This is the foundation of Triphasic Training.

Two weeks lowering slow. Two weeks holding strong. Two weeks exploding fast. Each block stacks on the last until you’ve developed all three phases.

We’ve seen the results first-hand. Over the last eight years, four of our athletes have been drafted in the first round of the NHL. Many more have broken plateaus in speed and power by finally training what they’d been ignoring.

Strength alone looks good in the gym, but training all three phases gives your nervous system permission to turn that strength into real-world performance.

The Bottom Line

You don’t unlock speed by adding more weight. You unlock it by teaching the system to fire faster.

You don’t get power from endless volume. You get it when your body feels stable and safe enough to use what it already has.

The nervous system is the multiplier. Once you train it, every ounce of strength and conditioning you’ve built compounds into your performance.

That’s the difference between looking strong in the gym and being explosive on the field or on the ice.

That's all for today.

See you next week,

Tony

P.S. If you want a plan to implement all of this during the season, the 8-Week In-Season Program gives you the exact workouts to plug into your schedule.