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Performance training has never had more data.

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Coaches can measure bar velocity, power output, jump height, force production, workload, heart rate, readiness, strength, movement quality, and dozens of other variables. The technology available to strength coaches, personal trainers, and performance professionals continues to improve every year.

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Yet one of the most important questions in coaching remains surprisingly difficult to answer:

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• What should I train next?

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Collecting data and making a programming decision are not the same thing.

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A coach may know that an athlete produced 1,500 watts, moved a bar at 0.8 m/s, completed five technically sound jumps, or increased a squat by 20 pounds. Those numbers describe performance.

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They do not automatically tell us what needs to be developed next.

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That gap between measurement and decision-making is where I believe much of performance training still has room to improve.

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More Data Is Not Necessarily Better Coaching

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Performance technology is extremely valuable. I use it regularly in my own coaching, but technology primarily gives us evidence.

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The coach still has to interpret that evidence within the context of the athlete, exercise, training phase, and desired adaptation.

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Consider two athletes who both produce the same peak power.

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• Athlete A maintains nearly the same output across repeated efforts.

• Athlete B reaches the same peak once, then rapidly declines.

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Their best performance may be identical, but their developmental needs are not.

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One athlete may need greater peak Output. Another may need to improve the ability to retain what they already possess.

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This is why I believe performance analysis should move beyond asking:

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• “What did the athlete produce?”

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and toward:

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• “What does this performance tell us about what should be developed next?”

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Four Developmental Questions

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This idea became the foundation of the EVZ Developmental Flow.

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Rather than treating performance as one number, EVZ organizes development around four qualities:

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• Retention — Can the individual establish and maintain stable, repeatable performance?

• Transfer — Can that performance continue to express itself as the force-velocity or task demand changes?

• Output — Can the individual increase and repeatedly express higher levels of performance?

• Re-attainment — Can performance be restored after fatigue, disruption, or reduced output?

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These qualities create a progression rather than an isolated snapshot.

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A coach can begin asking:

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• Where is performance stable?

• Where does it begin to deteriorate?

• How does it respond when the demand changes?

• Can the athlete recover and reproduce it?

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Those questions provide much more programming context than a peak value alone.

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From Assessment to Decision

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The framework I wanted to create was simple:

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• Assessment → Interpretation → Development Priority → Programming Decision

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The assessment tells us what happened.

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Interpretation gives that performance context.

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The Development Profile identifies what appears to require attention.

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The programming decision determines what we do about it.

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This is the philosophy behind Evans Velo Zone™ (EVZ).

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EVZ is designed to help coaches move from simply collecting performance information toward making more structured progression decisions.

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The objective is not to replace coaching judgment, but to give that judgment a more consistent framework.

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Performance Technology Is Only One Source of Evidence

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One of the most important developments during the creation of EVZ came from realizing that this framework should not depend on expensive technology.

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Power and velocity provide excellent objective data, but coaches have been evaluating performance long before those tools existed.

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• Movement quality matters.

• Technical consistency matters.

• Intent matters.

• The ability to maintain execution across repeated efforts matters.

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Those qualities can also be observed.

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For that reason, EVZ can apply the same developmental methodology through different evidence sources:

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• Observation. Power. Velocity. Hybrid assessment.

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The source of evidence can change without changing the underlying coaching framework.

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That distinction substantially expands where the methodology can be applied.

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A Box Jump Can Be a Diagnostic

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Consider something as simple as a box jump.

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• No force plate.

• No velocity tracker.

• No sophisticated laboratory.

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A coach can still standardize the exercise, observe repeated exposures, evaluate execution and consistency, and monitor how performance changes as the session progresses.

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The same principle can extend to:

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• Medicine-ball throws
• Goblet squats
• Step-ups
• Barbell exercises
• Kettlebell movements
• Sit-to-stands
• Loaded carries
• Sprint drills
• Olympic lifts

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Add performance hardware and the evidence becomes more objective.

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Remove the hardware and the developmental framework can still remain.

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That is an important distinction.

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Technology can enhance the evidence without defining the methodology.

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Beyond Sports Performance

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This also means developmental performance analysis does not have to stop with competitive athletes.

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Consider an older adult progressing a sit-to-stand or loaded squat.

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The goal may have nothing to do with maximizing athletic power.

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But the coaching questions remain relevant:

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• Can the client execute the movement consistently?

• Can the current level of performance be retained?

• What happens when resistance increases?

• Does movement quality deteriorate?

• Can the individual recover and reproduce the task?

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The exercises, expectations, and programming objectives change, but the decision-making process does not have to.

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The same applies to general strength training, youth development, golf fitness, private training, and other environments where coaches need to determine when to maintain, progress, modify, or revisit a training demand.

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That realization changed how I began thinking about EVZ.

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It was no longer simply a performance-technology application.

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It became a broader developmental decision-support methodology.

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Coaches Don’t Need Another Dashboard

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The industry already has excellent tools for displaying data.

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I don’t believe the solution is simply another graph.

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The more important opportunity is helping coaches connect information to action.

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A useful performance system should eventually help answer:

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• What happened?

• Why does it matter?

• What should I prioritize?

• What should I do next?

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That is the direction EVZ has been built around.

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Depending on the protocol and available evidence, the platform can evaluate relevant developmental qualities, identify a primary priority, and provide progression guidance while clearly marking qualities that were not actually assessed.

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The goal is not to manufacture certainty, but to create structured clarity.

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From Data to Development

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The future of coaching will almost certainly involve more technology, more information, and increasingly sophisticated analysis.

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But better measurement alone will not guarantee better programming.

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The real competitive advantage will belong to coaches who can convert information into better decisions.

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That is the problem I built EVZ to address.

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Not simply:

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• How much did the athlete produce?

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But:

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• What does this performance mean, and what should we develop next?

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That is the shift from collecting data to developing performance.

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And I believe it represents an important next step in how coaches evaluate progression.

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Experience the EVZ Methodology

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The Evans Velo Zone™ App is launching alongside the EVZ Platform Certification.

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The EVZ platform allows coaches to apply the developmental framework through observation, power, or velocity data, while the certification teaches the methodology behind the assessment, interpretation, and programming process.

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Try EVZ with a 7-day free trial and experience how the Developmental Flow can inform your next coaching decision.

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Want to understand the system at a deeper level? Explore the EVZ Level 1 Practitioner Certification and learn how to apply the methodology across athletes, clients, exercises, and training environments.

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