SHIFT - online 121 coaching, and personal training

02/10/2026

A lot of training still happens in straight lines.

Squat. Hinge. Push. Pull. And these are important.

But we don’t move through life, sport or training in one plane. We rotate. We brace against rotation. We shift force from one side of the body to the other. We use the hips and trunk together to create and control movement.

That’s where rotational work comes in.

These kettlebell exercises aren’t there just to make a session look more “functional”. They’re there to help build better movement.

To connect the lower and upper body, improve how force is transferred, and develop control through the trunk.

And to give strength a bit more context outside of the usual straight-line patterns.

You still need the basics; Squat. Hinge. Push. Pull. Carry.

Rotational work just adds another layer.

Because the goal isn’t simply to get stronger in the gym. It’s to build strength you can actually use.

TRAINING FOR MOVEMENT.

AthleticDevelopment

25/09/2026

Vet strength

What a way to finish the World Veterans Championships! 💪 🇬🇧

The British women delivered on a fantastic final day on the tatami, bringing home an incredible SEVEN medals – including TWO WORLD TITLES! 🥇🥇

🥇 Kay Andrews – F8 -70kg
🥇 Samantha Smithson – F5 -57kg
🥈 Becky Dunning – F2 -63kg
🥈 Danni Batt – F2 +78kg
🥉 Kylie Adams – F3 -70kg
🥉 Fiona Chan – F5 -57kg
🥉 Joyce Malley – F7 -63kg
5️⃣ Amy Woodruff – F3 -57kg

🌍 Two World Champions
🥇🥈🥉 Seven medals
👏 Eight brilliant performances

A huge congratulations to all eight women who represented British Judo with pride on the world stage! 🇬🇧🥋

23/09/2026

Tomorrow Paul mcloughlin races for Great Britain 🇬🇧 at the World Triathlon Age Group Championships in Pontevedra.

It’s fair to say the build into this race threw a curveball.

A fractured foot part-way through the programme meant running had to stop and we had to rethink the preparation.

The temptation in that situation is always to try to make up for what you’ve lost. We didn’t. Paul made tough yet sensible decisions.

We kept the weekly training rhythm, adapted what needed adapting and concentrated on what Paul could still do well. Swimming, cycling, rowing and strength work kept the engine going while the foot recovered.

What has impressed me most has been Paul’s approach to it.

He’s trusted the programme, been incredibly consistent and, just as importantly, given me good honest feedback when something hasn’t felt right. That’s allowed us to adjust things when needed rather than blindly chasing the original plan.

And he’s arriving in Pontevedra in good shape. Some of his best swimming has come in the last couple of weeks and the bike has been strong right through the taper.

There are still unknowns tomorrow, particularly after such a long period without running. But there’s nothing more to be gained from worrying about that now.

The work is done.

Put the GB kit on, enjoy racing at a World Championships and see what the day gives you.

You’ve been brilliant to coach. Good luck Paul. 🇬🇧

21/09/2026

Final prep for fighters competing at the BKK British Open in two weeks.

Repeated explosive attack exposure - the ability to produce fast, powerful, technically controlled combinations, recover briefly, then reproduce the same quality again.

Superb focus and intention from all in attendance putting a coaching team in their happy place.

Good luck all 👊

17/09/2026

Strength has value on its own, but its real usefulness comes from how well we can apply and control it through movement.

That is why exercise selection matters.

A split squat gives me a simple way to develop lower-body strength while also asking the athlete to control the pelvis, trunk and spine in a staggered stance. It is not just about producing force through the legs; it is also about owning position while that force is being produced.

From there, I can keep a similar split stance, hold an upright neutral spine, and introduce an upper-body pull.

Now the challenge changes. The lower body has to maintain position and stability while force is being generated elsewhere. The hips and trunk have to manage that interaction rather than simply remain passive.

The next progression is to integrate the lower and upper body together.

By combining the split-stance pattern with reciprocal upper-body movement, we begin to create a more coordinated whole-body action - linking the hips, trunk and upper body in a way that starts to reflect the patterns we see in gait, rotation and athletic movement.

This is how I think about progression.

Not simply making an exercise harder, but changing the demand in a way that develops another layer of capability.

👉 Build strength.
👉 Control position.
👉 Connect movement.

Yes the exercise matters. So does understanding why it is being used.

TRAINING FOR MOVEMENT

16/09/2026

More isn’t always better.

This is a key message of mine and throughout the Shift journey.

A good training programme is not built by seeing how much work you can squeeze in. It’s built around what you actually need to improve and what you can recover from.

Invoke enough training to create a clear stimulus, enough recovery to adapt, and enough restraint to avoid turning every session into a test of tolerance.

Read that last part again. And again.

The hard part is recognising when useful work starts becoming unnecessary work.

That’s why context matters. Strength work, conditioning, sport, work stress, sleep and everything else in life all contribute to the load you’re carrying.

So the question isn’t:

“Can I do more?”

It’s:

“Will more help?”

Sometimes the best programming decision is progression. Sometimes it’s holding the line. Sometimes it’s taking something out.

Do enough to create the adaptation. Recover from it. Then move forward.

Training for movement.

14/09/2026

3 weeks out 💥

Always a pleasure and the best feeling to help fighters prepare for British Open.

A special energy that if you know, you know and carry with you. Good to stand with and

04/09/2026

Push strength is about more than pressing a heavy weight.

It’s the ability to produce force away from the body, and transfer that force effectively through the whole body.

Here, I’m developing it in three different ways:

• Single-arm cable press: controlled horizontal pushing strength and trunk stability.
• Medicine-ball chest pass: expressing horizontal force quickly through an explosive pressing action.
• Underarm medicine-ball toss: using the legs and hips to generate force, then transferring it through the trunk and upper body.

Strength builds the capacity.
Power is how quickly you can express it.
Good movement connects everything together.

For everyday life or sporting performance, we want strength we can actually use.

Does your training develop strength, power, or both?

SHIFT | Training for Movement

31/08/2026

A good training programme shouldn’t feel random.

There’s a difference between a programme that evolves and one that constantly changes for the sake of keeping things “fresh”.

Most progress comes from doing the right things consistently enough to actually get better at them.

That doesn’t mean repeating the exact same session forever. Loads move. Reps change. Tempo changes. Conditioning progresses. Exercises can be adjusted when there’s a reason to.

But the foundations need to stay in place long enough for you to:
👉 build skill,
👉 create adaptation and
👉 see whether the work is actually doing what it’s supposed to do.

Too much variety can make training feel busy without making it productive.

Keep the important things in. Progress them. Change them when there’s a reason.

That’s how you build momentum.

So, train with intent intelligently.

27/08/2026

BKK Summer Camp 2026 🥋

3 days.
160 attendees.
1 Karate family.

Once again, I had the honour of being one of the instructors at this year’s Summer Camp.

Camp is always a big weekend, but for me it’s never just about the training.

It’s about bringing everyone together. Different dojos, different grades, different ages, all sharing the same space, training hard, learning from each other and enjoying being part of something bigger.

There was plenty of hard work across the three days, but also a lot of laughs, conversations, catching up with old friends and making new ones.

I always enjoy teaching at camp, but I also enjoy watching others coach, picking up ideas and seeing how people respond to different ways of training.

You never stop learning.

160 people on the field creates a great atmosphere, but what really makes the weekend is the people.

Another brilliant BKK Summer Camp.