This episode’s guest is Georgia Southern University’s director of Olympic strength and conditioning: Jeff Ward. Coach Ward was a part-time assistant when I started working there, and he made a huge jump to the director position. He’s got a good story of how he got there, so listen up!
It’s important to note that there isn’t a one-size-fits-all training protocol, and these are just some general suggestions based on a few successes and countless failures over my career that I consider when writing a program.
Like any other coach, I love talking about training and programming and being in the weight room while coaching. But like many of you, I’ve neglected the thing between my ears, and I want you to know that it’s all right to feel. If your mental health is a weakness, don’t avoid it.
My life went through a lot of changes and adjustments during 2018, which meant I had to learn and re-learn things. Lesson 1: the grass isn’t always greener on the other side, but sometimes it is, so watch your lawn and don’t forget that some grass is better than yours.
If you think you have what it takes to become a strength coach, you’ve got to start with an internship. This one’s for the future interns who want to get on the field and on the strength and conditioning path. Just know there’s little to no money or prestige in the gig.
elitefts columnist Ashley Jones is Australian by birth, a New Zealander by choice and marriage, but first and foremost, he’s a strength and conditioning coach with 40 years of experience under his belt with plenty of passion and advice to spare to future coaches.
If speed is what we’re going after, then why do the weights on both our heavy and light days continue to climb, and bar speed continues to fall? As we get deeper into the competitive season and continue to put more tonnage on the athletes, we are burning the candle at both ends.
Steve “Kono” Konopka and I cover our daily pre-practice warm-ups, bulletproof shoulder circuits, what we call the “f@#k the bottom, you belong at the top” conditioning circuit, and answer a couple of questions in the third part of our #BAMF Wrestler series.
Reading Al Miller’s “The System” made me think about my most successful program. I’ve dubbed this hodgepodge of six years in strength and conditioning “Performance Drive Response,” which is a culmination of a bunch of different systems I’ve used, seen, and been in or part of.
Coaches, athletic trainers, physical therapists, equipment personnel, and league officials all have distinctly different vantage points on the same subject matter. Somewhere along the lines, one of the most critical perspectives gets lost in the shuffle: the players’.
To answer this question, we need to define strength. But there are many ways to define strength, so we all have to come up with our own method for defining strength. For me, it’s the squat.
Live and learn from your failures and mistakes. Be willing to learn, and maybe more importantly, be willing to be wrong. Now go and pass that along.
I’ve been really blessed to be around some great leaders who taught me these lessons. I wouldn’t be the man and coach I am today without them.
‘Tis the season to reflect on the past, present, and future. Don’t be a Scrooge — take a moment to thank the people who have shaped who you are today.
Exactly where does coaching begin? With the sport, athlete, or person?
People on the outside see the bowl game wins, or the squat PR’s, but what they don’t see is the process.
Whatever the reason, what does a strength coach do when things are not going as expected? This is one of the hardest things to deal with, whether you are new at this business, or have been in it for a while.
I’m guessing that other strength coaches think about this too. I can’t be the only one, right?
Our success at JYT, with this approach, has been demonstrated by our consistent growth year after year in our membership, as well as the wide range of people we are able to help and train.
To an outsider, things may seem easy during camp as far as being a strength coach goes. You have them maybe a half hour to forty-five minutes a day if you’re lucky. Easy peasy, right? Wrong!
If you aren’t willing to change and grow, you won’t survive. Here are the ways my perspective on strength coaching rules has changed since my previous article on the topic.
Understanding this tool for manipulating training intensities is key for athlete programming at every part of pre-season, in-season, post-season and off-season phases.
There are moments in life that shape your mind and determine the way you choose to think and live. I have experienced two such moments that have shaped my coaching and life philosophies.
Making 200 protein shakes per day and cleaning up the weight room isn’t going to make anyone a better coach, so you’d better hope there’s more than grunt work for you to do.
If you aren’t open to the knowledge and expertise of those around you, you’re only holding yourself back. These are some of the most influential things I’ve learned from others in this industry.
I’m here to spread the true secret of strength, if you think you can handle it.
These are what I’d consider the biggest mistakes in letting injury dictate your ability to train.
These are important rules that you will never find in any classroom or lecture, passed down from strength coach to strength coach.
Your clients are all looking for a combination of guidance, accountability, and a relationship with a coach. It’s your job to figure out which of the three they need and how to best deliver it.
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?
I have outlined some things that I believe will serve to help aspiring strength coaches and young strength coaches thrive in this industry.
There’s nothing that will ever replace good old-fashioned hard work and practice. Not only that, this is where your life happens one plateau at a time.
What started in a 2,000-square-foot facility is now two, 20,000-square-foot locations. And JL Holdsworth has his sights set on even more growth.
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.
Change ‘I’ to ‘we’ and now you really have something: a team, with everyone working toward a common cause.
There is one simple rule to follow to circumvent many of the issues that cause animosity between the sport coach and the strength coach.
With the exponential growth of the fitness industry over the past 20 years, the roots of elitefts still hold strong: a foundational trunk of knowledge sprouting enough branches to accommodate nearly every training discipline imaginable.
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.
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.
I remember a time in strength and conditioning when hard work and sweat equity were paramount, and the integrity of the workout was the most important thing. Our most important job was player development, period.
In sports performance, sometimes you need to shut up, take a seat in the back of the room, and learn before you are ready to lead from the front.
Much like setting up your squat, get your bands set up correctly from the bottom up and the rest will fall into place.
Buddy was one of the first people I ever looked up to, both as a person and as a strength and conditioning coach. Here are some of his best one-liners from the weekend.
There are a lot of insights to gain from being both a powerlifter and a collegiate head strength coach.
Because I grew up in Akron, Ohio, I’ll never forget the impact LeBron James has had on my life. But it’s not the championships or the records that I admire him for most.
If you’re going to be successful in this industry, there are a few things you need to know from the very start.
Understanding where your clients are on the T.A.M spectrum, and where they want to be, is crucial for delivering the best coaching-client experience possible.
At the college or high school level, you are likely to deal with many athletes who have a mental illness. Will you know how to help them?
This is the first question you should ask yourself when training a team. To get this point across, I’ve attached my entire fall football training program.
Young strength coaches, go back to the basics to improve your athletes’ performance.