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I won't bash anyone at the DIII level who takes on strength and conditioning duties at their respective universities. This is not me on my soapbox or high horse. I have more respect for the coaches at the DIII level than most. 11 of my 15 years as a coach were at the DIII level. Of course, it goes without saying that the lower level of competition you are at, the dumber you are, right?

A lot coaches at conferences will not look you in the eye but instead look just at your name tag. It is a huge mistake and the AFCA conference is even worse. The reality is that if you put some of the DI coaches in a situation like the one I was in, they would crumble. I love the DI strength coaches that complain about the eight-hour rule or the fact they have three teams and they are "so busy." It doesn't make sense, and here's why.

These were my job assignments my last year as a S&C Coach:

• Director of Strength & Conditioning (23 sports)
• Assistant Football Coach
  –Defensive Line
  –Punt/Punt Return
  –Director of Football Operations
  –Recruit Central Ohio, Pittsburgh, & then D-Line recruits
• Varsity Weight Room Supervisor
• Physical Education Instructor
  –PHED-159
  –PHED-168
• Practicum Supervisor
  –PHED-350
• Internship Coordinator

As you can imagine, I burned out.

NCAA Rules

In Division III, there is no eight-hour rule. Technically there is no off-season training for DIII schools, either. That's bullshit, you say? Well, I can see why you would think that off-season workouts are acceptable. Just watch Wisconsin Whitewater play Mount Union. Also, there are a few schools with full-time S&C coaches at the DIII level. But here are some facts without copying and pasting from the NCAA rulebook. (It is 17.02.1 if you are interested.)

Pre-Season/In-Season:

Training can happen on any practice day (no time limit) as long as there is one complete day off in a calendar week.

Non-Traditional Season:

Training can happen on any practice day (no time limit). Most sports are limited to 16 practices and maybe one competition day. Training should fall of those days.

Off-Season:

Here is where the rule can be interpreted in many different ways. There is a lot of grey area. The NCAA defines what is an athletic related activity constituting a practice. Here are examples of what determines a practice, and thus a violation if done in the off season:

Required weight-training and conditioning activities held at the direction of or supervised by an institutional staff member;

Participation in a physical-fitness class (including a summer class) conducted by a member of the athletics staff not listed in the institution’s catalog and not open to all students. Such a class may not include practice activities conducted under the guise of physical education class work; (Adopted: 1/10/95, Revised: 10/17/06)

Required participation in camps, clinics or workshops;Individual workouts required or supervised by a member of the coaching staff. An institutional staff member may design a voluntary (see Bylaw 17.02.13) individual-workout program for a student-athlete,but cannot conduct the individual’s workout outside the declared playing season; (Adopted: 1/10/91 effective 8/1/91, Revised: 1/12/04, 1/17/09)

Notice some of the revisions were very recent. You should have seen it when I first started. Do I think DIII coaches are following these guidelines and only performing the exceptions to these rules listed below? Fuck no. I don't think that many of them even know the rules, and no one could give a shit if they are following them or not.

Here are the exceptions to an "athletic related activity." This means that these would not be violations and most are relatively recent revisions. Pay close attention to the vagueness of the language used.

Voluntary individual workouts monitored for safety purposes by strength and conditioning personnel. If the strength and conditioning coach is also a coaching staff member for one of the institution’s intercollegiate teams, the monitoring may occur only if that staff member performs monitoring duties for all student-athletes using the facility at that time; (Revised: 10/17/06, 1/14/08 effective 8/1/08)

Voluntary individual strength and conditioning activities conducted by strength and conditioning personnel, who have received strength and conditioning certification from a nationally recognized certification program, only during the institution’s regular academic year (see Bylaw 11.1.6 for additional certification requirements); and (Adopted: 1/15/11 effective 8/1/11, Revised: 1/14/12 effective 8/1/12)

The last one is the most recent and ended up being the demise of DIII strength and conditioning. This has hurt our profession big time, and I am partly to blame.

The Letter

I contacted the NSCA office a few years ago and told them about the revisions (the last one). Boyd Epley drafted a letter to be sent to all DIII athletic directors. Two other DIII S&C coaches and I were listed there. The point was to encourage AD's to hire qualified, certified coaches to run the strength and conditioning programs at their universities.

In my opinion, it backfired. They went the other way and I can't blame them. It isn't the NSCA or Body Epley's fault. Boyd is a legend and without him, we would not have a profession. We were promoting what was right, but small private schools sometimes don't have the money to do what's right.

We can't blame the CSCCa, either. They truly don't care about anyone outside of DI. I know this because two coaches on the Board of Directors told me so, flat out, when I brought it to their attention.

Bottom Line:

Instead of Division III athletic directors finding the money to hire legitimate strength coaches, they have encouraged sport coaches to get certified so they can train their teams (and maybe some others).

Why would an AD create another position when they can just have coaches perform an extra duty (sometimes with no additional pay) to do something they want control of, anyway?

You see, DIII Coaches fall into a few different categories when it come to their attitude toward a strength coach training their teams.

1. Very grateful and appreciative. They treat you as part of their staff.
2. Supportive but really just glad they don't have to deal with training their own team.
3. Very cautious and protective of anyone being a part of their team's culture.
4. All-knowing and have a system they have been using since they were playing in college.
5. Not supportive and do not see the value in physical development for their sport.

I have worked with them all.

The Questions

So, why did this even come up? A young lady that Nick Showman, owner of Showtime Strength & Performance, trains is a senior at a university, prepared for her final season. This poor girl doesn't have a program to follow and if she does, she doesn't ever get coached on her lifts.

I could write a book on all of the frustrating issues with DIII athletics and I may extend this to provide some strategies for sport coaches. How do I start a S&C program from scratch? I have done it in the past and I have some methods. Anyway, I will sum it up with a message for all sport coaches that train their own teams.

Would you ever give your team a practice plan, let them practice for two hours, have them write down what they did and tun it back in to you? The answer is "fuck no," but here is the follow up:

Why would you do exactly that when your team is weight training?

You have a young athlete with an axial load on his or her spine attempting to squat possibly after a two hour practice and you don't think it is important to coach them? Interesting.

Turn the Tables

Imagine that you are a head college basketball coach and you needed an assistant. I apply. Now, I have never played basketball except for pick-up games and I have certainly never coached before. But...

I read several book on basketball and then take a written test on the rules, philosophy, drills, etc. of the game of basketball. I pass the exam. Now I am ready to be a basketball coach and you should hire me, right?

Well, that is exactly what every coach who sends their assistants to get certified to run the lifting sessions in the off-season is doing. It's not their fault. Their hands are tied and the AD's have put them in a situation that they either get certified, don't train their teams, or violate the rules.

But, it's only the health, safety and performance of the athlete we are talking about. So what's the big deal?