Michael Yessis

In 1975 Yessis and Fred Wilt, noted athlete and running trainer, coined the term plyometrics while observing Soviet athletes warming up. In 1982 Yessis traveled to the Soviet Union to work with Yuri Verkhoshansky, a leading biomechanist and sports trainer from the USSR at a time of Soviet sports dominance.

Yessis was chief editor for two well-established academic journals and senior editor for a Weider Publication. Yessis was the editor-in-chief for The Fitness and Sports Review International, a quarterly publication from 1966–1994. He also held the editor-in-chief position for Soviet Sports Review, a collection of translated journals from Soviet coaches and original articles from contributing writers from 1968–1972. In addition, Yessis provided translation and original writing contributions to Soviet Sports Review. Yessis served as senior editor for Sports Fitness (a Weider Publication known today at Men's Fitness).

As a researcher and translator, Yessis made available for an English-speaking audience an array of significant Soviet books and journals created by the Soviet sports-scientists beginning in 1961, including Yuri Verkhoshansky, creator of the 'shock method' of training, later to be called "plyometrics", Anatoliy Bondarchuk's signature work Transfer of Training and the signature work of Vladimir Issurin, Block Periodization Training. Yessis was a leader of a group of athletes, sports coaches, and strength coaches to the Soviet Union to study at the Moscow State Institute of Physical Culture. He established contacts for the exchange of information and for the development of greater exchanges between the countries. His work was responsible for making this body of Soviet science-based sports research available in the United States. Yessis' translations include: Transfer of Training Volume I, Transfer of Training Volume II, Block Periodization Training, Special Strength Training A Practical Manual for Coaches, Running and Hurdling and numerous Soviet journals.