Adapting to Needs — Phase 1 of Winter Strength and Conditioning for Foot...
Our team is pretty strong in the weight room and it has transferred to the field, but we're not a big team. The head coach and I have come to an agreement on changes we're going to make, with a phase that starts January 16.
'If You Build It They Will Come' — Remembering My First Champi...
How do you build your team? How do you take a group of athletes from every aspect of society and get them pulling in the same direction toward a common cause?
A Letter to the Next Me
I've often heard people ask the question, what would you tell a younger you? This is a great question all strength coaches should answer.
Instilling A Growth Mindset
During his first soccer season, there were several things I said to my son each week in hopes of helping him understand that no matter what he does in life, it will take work to get there.
The Five Exercise Assignment
You must pick five and only five exercises or drills to train all of the university sports for all of the seasons. What makes your list?
Full Circuit Athletics and the Role of Strength and Conditioning for Bas...
Charlie Karstedt has left no stone unturned in giving his guys every opportunity they need to be successful at his facility.
Training Clients for Free — The Unsustainable State
For both trainer and trainee, the service is most valuable when the terms are mutually beneficial and serve the aims of both parties. There's only one circumstance for me that I've found no compensation is sustainable.
Life Is About Growth, Not Comfort
It’s okay to fail. It's okay to be uncomfortable. Defeat can lead to victory if you learn from it and gain experience along the way.
Coaching Essentials for Program Development
How do you determine if your program is too easy, too hard, or just right? Here are some things to look for to see if your coach is the real deal or full of shit.
Training Triple Extension — Olympic Lifting Variations and Substitutions
The optimal way to enhance an athlete’s power is by creating a force-velocity profile designed to address the athletes’ specific needs. When time does now allow for this, there are simple, safe alternative methods you can use.
WATCH: Q&A with Coach Kav — The Biggest Mistake Coaches Make Teachin...
Once you've started with a baseline position, adjustments should first be made based on limb length and secondly based on strength history.
A Weekend of JL Holdsworth — My Introduction to Reflexive Performance Reset
I had the opportunity to take one of the RPR courses this week when JL asked to hold a clinic at my university. Whether you love or hate the idea of Reflexive Performance Reset, it works!
7 Pillars of Leadership
I recently spoke to my university's leadership committee and it got me thinking about some things that are imperative to the success of strength and conditioning coaches.
So You Want to Be a Strength Coach?
I have outlined some things that I believe will serve to help aspiring strength coaches and young strength coaches thrive in this industry.
WATCH: Q&A with Coach Kav — The Most Common Weaknesses of Aspiring N...
When young athletes who plan to go into an NFL camp or enter the draft visit Coach Kav, there are two main issues he almost always encounters.
Weapons of Metabolic Disruption
This compilation of training sessions is drawn from the minds of many great coaches, and includes initial and periodic testing to ensure intensity and distance per session challenge the metabolic systems of the athletes.
The Human Element
College athletics may be a giant machine, but the humans run it. We need to understand that the athletes, just like us as coaches, have good days and bad days, and instilling good character should always be number one.
Why You Should Hire an Online Coach
Not all online trainers are bad. Many members of team elitefts have been in this line of work for decades, training people long before social media even existed. Here's what to look for.
The Do's and Don'ts of Leadership
Since college, I've worked at seven different universities and a few Globo gyms. I've run clinics, I've trained privately, and I've even worked construction. From all this, I've learned from some great leaders and some less than great leaders.
Explosive Power or True Plyometric: Is There a Difference Between Types ...
Coaches need to be careful about how often and at what intensities they play their ace cards. You cannot draw on all training methods year round, so know when and why to use these variations.
Programs to Stimulate Size and Strength Gains
I have collated a few of my most result-producing programs for you to try, from both a sports performance perspective and also general training for size and strength for the non-sports person.
We Better Get It Right — Securing the Future of S&C Before It's...
This is real stuff that is happening right now — not just my opinion, but what is really going on. I am not bitching, but I am calling for change in the right way. This is what needs to happen.
WATCH: The Strength Coach Development Center — Olympic Lifts Progression
The Olympic lifts will develop strength, speed, and power, but this is dependent on a few things you must do for your athletes.
Grading Professionalism in Collegiate Strength and Conditioning
This is a difficult issue to balance because people expect us to be over the top and screaming all the time. I'm asking that we raise the level of professionalism.
Program Determination Using the Quadrant Approach: Individualization in ...
Many programs say they individualize, but in reality very few do it well. This is why I borrowed the Quadrant Management System from business and redeveloped it to meet my requirements for programming in team sports.
A Case for Max Effort Work and How To Introduce It
For the most profound results we need to train the area of the force velocity curve our athletes have spent the least amount of time on.
Changing the System from Within
Our job is to be better than those coaches who let the kids believe football is life. Our job is to make sure these athletes leave us better than when they arrived.
Prepare for Battle: The Fighter’s Guide to Fight Preparation
To be elite in combat sports these days you need to be more well-rounded in your strength and conditioning than ever. You'll need absolute strength, relative strength, strength endurance, special strength, speed, power, and conditioning.
LISTEN: Developing Athletes Through the APRE Protocol for Strength Training
Dr. Mann joins Dr. Lowery and Dr. Nelson to discuss the APRE and how the implementation of this protocol transitioned to velocity-based training.
Avoid These Group Programming Mistakes
Simply winging it won’t cut it. It's incredibly important for your clients’ health and success that you stop making these errors.
5 Ways You're Rejecting Self Improvement As A Coach
I recently started going through some old boxes and found an article I printed and saved when I coached at Denison. The information was pertinent for coaches then and it still is now.
Set the Standard
Change 'I' to 'we' and now you really have something: a team, with everyone working toward a common cause.
A Full Year's Weight Room Programming in Professional Rugby
This is the exact weight training program that I applied to the Panasonic Rugby team for the 2014-15 season.
Check Your Ego at the Door and Maximize Your Gains
I'm going to share four key components to packing on more muscle and getting stronger by actually backing off the weight.
Seek First to Understand
There is one simple rule to follow to circumvent many of the issues that cause animosity between the sport coach and the strength coach.
The Secret to Success in the Weight Room: Training Hard and Knowing Your...
You want the short route to constructing the perfect program? Here it is, summed up in two variables.
Bring Your Passion
As a profession, we must look in the mirror and ask ourselves if we're doing what we're asking others to do.
Assessment of Shoulder Dysfunction: Getting Ahead of the Game
There are four joints that make up the shoulder and 12 muscles that act on the scapula. These simple range of motion screens can help you identify issues and develop a plan to train for correcting them.
WATCH: Mark Uyeyama SPS Presentation — The Progression of Strength and C...
Becoming more knowledgable as a coach means learning the right things and not wasting your time on the wrong ones. The challenge in today's industry is knowing how to tell the difference.
WATCH: The Strength Coach Development Center — Deadlift Progression
One of the best movements to build strength but also one of the hardest to teach for many coaches is the deadlift. It's worth your time to learn correctly.
Who Are You — From Assistant to Head Coach
In the realm of strength and conditioning, you are always selling yourself to administrators, athletic directors, sport coaches, your boss, athletes, recruits, and everyone else around you. Will they like what they see?
WATCH: Mark Uyeyama SPS Presentation — Where I've Been
The journey to Head Strength and Conditioning Coach of the San Francisco 49ers has been long and rewarding, with a lot of lessons learned along the way.
Planning the Week, Month, and Year
I have attempted to be as detailed as possible in presenting to you a comprehensive program based around the variability that makes up a complete year of rugby.
How Powerlifting Makes Me A Better Weightlifting Coach
I truly believe that if not for the lessons I learned in powerlifting all those years ago, I would not be as effective a coach as I am today.
The Real State of The Industry — 3 Imperfections of S&C
We are the most egotistical profession in the nation, right next to actors and those people who work at Baywatch (a documentary I’m definitely about to see). Let me break it down for you.
Coaches of Tomorrow — Building A Better Internship Program
Your internship or coaching development program should be a professional development program, not the result of saying, “I need somebody to do the busy work in the weight room.”
Social Media in Strength and Conditioning
Life was meant to be lived, not read. Cars were meant to be driven, not parked. The harbor is safe, but a ship was meant to sail. Don't let articles and books convince you that you understand it all.
WATCH: The Strength Coach Development Center — Overhead Press Progression
A lot of coaches shy away from the overhead press because it’s “dangerous.” But my question to the coaches that say that: “Aren’t most exercises potentially dangerous?”
X Marks the Spot: 3 Ways to Make It to Your Next Big Coaching Job
Everyone wants to be the head strength coach at a school that has a realistic opportunity to compete for a national championship, but I don’t think enough people put the right kind of plan in place to get there.
The Need for Flexibility in Exercise Selection and Progression
It’s interesting — as strength coaches, we constantly talk about the need for good programming and consistency, but having flexibility is undoubtedly a key component.
Stop Training a Bundle of Muscles and Start Training an Athlete
I spent a year of my master's in Michigan Technological University’s “Rhetoric Theory and Culture” program. The time spent in this field has made me a better coach with lessons all coaches can benefit from.
WATCH: Justus Galac SPS Presentation — Strength and Conditioning Program...
In this final video of the presentation, part four, Galac focuses on the importance of making modifications to training and staying focused while doing so.
The Agility Ladder — Useful Tool or Waste of Time?
I’ve heard more times than I can count that agility ladders are not all they are cracked up to be, that they don’t fit into an elite athlete's program, that they don’t develop speed, and that they don’t develop change of direction skills.
Regular Testing for Physical Improvement in Rugby
Rugby is a high intensity intermittent collision sport, which requires a multi-factorial physical training approach to optimize performance.
10 Tips to Make It as a Strength Coach
Want to make it in this field? Want to stand out? Here are ten tips for all you fresh college grads and those of you that are starting your internships.
Circa Max Phase for Throwers
Each time I use this method myself I feel like I could run through a wall come meet day. Now after six years of using this cycle, we have proof that it works for our athletes.
WATCH: Justus Galac SPS Presentation — Strength and Conditioning Drills ...
Moving into the finer details of the training layout, in this video Galac outlines the pre-workout preparation he uses for his team and the techniques and drills he uses to coach such a large group.
WATCH: The Strength Coach Development Center — Bench Progression
This four-step progression is used to help young athletes develop the proper form, stability, and strength required to use a barbell.