Bespoke Treatments X Spellman

On a crisp morning at a sports complex in Irvine, California, the energy is high. As the athletes go through their personal pre-workout preparation, coaches Les Spellman, JP Pinnock, and Cici Murray bob their heads to the music and make their rounds to each athlete to check in. This is the Spellman Performance Group.

Characterized by blazing velocities, high power, and constant communication, the Spellman Performance Group is on the forefront of speed development. Led by Les Spellman, the group uses advanced technologies and years of coaching experience to improve their athletes’ peak velocity and acceleration. The group coaches year round, however, the past two months have been specific to NFL players in their offseason and college players who are looking to enter the NFL via draft or free agency.

The philosophy of the coaching staff is one of the many ways they have set themselves apart in the human performance world. They want to maximize horizontal force output to increase linear velocity and acceleration.
Pinnock describes the foundation of his coaching as his “four P’s”. “Posture, precision, pattern, power”. By establishing the fundamentals of posture, and precision, his athletes are able to generate efficient movement patterns that lead to optimal power and velocity.

The group uses GPS monitoring and a 1080 Sprint, a portable resistance trainer, to formulate a force/velocity profile of each individual athlete. They use these data points to form a unique training program for the athlete that is dependent on these numbers. Every athlete will have a unique load to pull on the 1080 Sprint with athletes pulling 10-50% of their body weight at a time for 5-40 yard distances while their velocities are tracked via GPS tracking. Sprinting at maximum velocity isn’t the only training of the group, however. Each sprint session is supplemented with drills to reinforce the
proper mechanics of sprinting or acceleration based on the focus that day.

Maintaining the health of the athletes is another primary goal of the program. “Our focus is to keep these guys healthy through the journey of peaks and lows while trying to reach the optimal end goal for that particular individual,” Pinnock says. “Each athlete may be on a different phase of development, so we recognize and cater to each athlete differently”

The physical therapists from Bespoke Treatments – San Diego assisted in the on-field non-emergency medical management of the current and prospective NFL athletes. Because of the nature of strong accelerations and sprinting, common injuries include strains of the hip flexors and hamstrings. that in mind, the coaches and the Bespoke team continually assessed and addressed any restrictions in joint mobility or muscle strength that could be increasing the risk of injury. Treatments for the athletes included soft tissue mobilization, therapeutic exercises for mobility and strength, home exercise programs using our Bespoke app, and other modalities for pain relief.

As the athletes made their way through the rigorous training regiment with the Spellman Performance group, it was imperative that the communication between the coaching staff and the physical therapists was clear. Through this, the athletes successfully made their way through the ten week long training regiment.