1. Aside from college classes, what resources have you used to help you get to where you are now in the strength and conditioning coach world?
In my opinion, the most important resources I have in the S&C world are people/mentors. I have been humble enough to surround myself with people that are smarter than I am. Any chance you get to be around people that know more than you do is a great resource for you to gain greater understanding of your craft.
A second resource that I use on a daily basis are books. I cannot stress enough the importance of reading. We are in a time when athletes are exposed to everything through social media and want to know WHY they are doing what they are doing at practice. As a S&C coach, I better be able to give them a good answer, not just “because that is the way I have always done it”. That answer is not good enough with this generation of athletes. My advice, read the books that smarter people than you are reading or recommend you read.
Book Recommendations for high school coaches and athletes:
- Movement Over Maxes – Zach Dechant
- Ego is the Enemy – Ryan Holliday
- The Alchemist – Paulo Coelho
Finally, it is not enough to read and learn. We have to be able to apply these things in the weight room or on the field in a way that benefits the athletes/clients that are right in front of us. Just because some NFL player is doing single-leg squats on a bosu ball, wearing a blindfold and a band around his waist does not mean that you go apply that with a 14-year old athlete. Understand that everything you see/read is contextual.
If you try to eat soup with a fork, it is probably not going to go well. That does not mean a fork is not a good tool in the toolbox. Just is not the right tool in that context.
2. What is the most important aspect of an athletes training and why?
There are a lot of answers to this question. I think the most important aspect of an athlete’s training is the foundation. “A pyramid is only as tall as its base” – Louie Simmons. Especially young, high school athletes that are in this prime stage of development to learn and build great motor patterns. High school coaches have a lot of power and influence on an athlete’s development and with that power comes responsibility. One problem we see in the collegiate and professional setting is that a lot of athletes, not all – cannot perform basic body weight exercises and locomotive patterns. The question becomes from our end: what have you been doing for the last 4-years in high school? Be responsible with the power and influence you have over the kids’ development. Nobody talks about the athlete that peaked when he/she was 14-years old.
3. How important is conditioning and sprints to an athlete?
Very important. Very easy to mess up and do more harm than good too.
Conditioning – First, understand what the demands of the sport are. Baseball for example, is full of short duration, “bursts” of activity with a lot more rest than work. What does a baseball player running the mile over and over again accomplish? All they did was get really good at running a mile. The goal of conditioning should be geared toward the athlete being able to repeatedly express high-intensity efforts demanded from the game.
“A man who runs slow, will be slow” – unknown, early 1900’s.
Easy ways for high school coaches to integrate “conditioning” – have your athletes play games (sharks and minnows, basketball, tag, ultimate frisbee”). Put your athletes in environments that they can be athletes and let the by-products come with it. You will get more effort because they are going to have fun, they are hopefully going to compete and they are going to sprint, jog, change direction, jump, land, roll and just be athletes.
Sprinting – Sprinting provides the highest neurological stimulus of any means of training. There is nothing in the weight room that can replicate the stimulus that sprinting provides. The big thing I want to touch on here is that true speed work, is not conditioning. If you are sprinting your athletes, the goal is to be working at 95-100% effort/intensity. They cannot do that if they are running a 10-yard sprint, with a 5-second rest. Rule of thumb: 1 minute rest for every 10 yards sprinted.
Side note: Research from the NFL Combine showed that a majority of the athletes reached their peak velocity by the 15-yard marker. A younger, less developed athlete will more than likely reach high speeds before 15-yards. Keep this in mind when prescribing sprints to your athletes – a lot can be accomplished with quality sprint work in 10-20 yard sprints with adequate rest.
4. What are some important exercises or movements that every athlete should incorporate into their workout and why?
You will hear a lot of good strength coaches say, “Creator of nothing, borrower of everything”. Most of what actually works has been researched and developed from the 1960’s and even before so there is really no need for an inexperienced coach to start coming up with these crazy exercises that look good on instagram and twitter.
Fundamental Pattern Categories:
- Press – No, not bench press. The push up is a great starting point for most, if not all young athletes. Why? Teaches them how to work middle out or “core” to the extremities through proper bracing sequences. Starts to teach the athlete how to properly move the shoulder girdle through ranges of motion.
- Pull – Underhand Inverted Row. Why? It is the inverted movement pattern as the push up. Same principles apply from the push up, just in the opposite direction. Reinforcing proper scapular/shoulder girdle mechanics along with proper bracing sequences.
- Hip Hinge – Arguable the most important position/pattern an athlete can learn. From the defensive position in basketball, all positions in baseball, tennis and the list can keep going, but all of these have a common denominator – the athletic position. The hip hinge is an essential movement that must be learned correctly to ensure safety throughout an athletes career, especially in the weight room. In the weight room specifically, you know the hip hinge as a RDL (Romanian Deadlift), which is a great movement for developing the posterior chain/extensors (erectors, glutes and hamstrings). These are a very important group of musculature as they are the engine of the body to put it simply.
- Squat/Split Squat – In order to squat efficiently, the athlete must know how to hip hinge. The squat is also the hardest movement to master in my opinion. This movement must be progressed properly in order to ensure safety and longevity as the athletes progress through their careers. The squat and split squat are the base movements in which all other lower body movements derive from.
Have progressions. Make your athletes EARN progressing to adding weight or moving onto more complex movements.
Remember nobody talks about the athlete that squatted 405 with really, really poor technique.
5. Every lifter and athlete love to use supplements, what are some clean proteins for an athlete to use? What are your thoughts on creatine?
I have never understood the infatuation with supplements to be honest. Probably because someone on social media posted something about “gaining 10 pounds of muscle in 2 weeks if you take this supplement.” I would highly recommend steering athletes away from supplements until they have put more effort into eating 3-4 meals each day consisting of a meat source, vegetables, fruits and whatever other carbohydrate source they have available. In a world of instant gratification, the last place athletes should think it is sustainable is the kitchen and the weight room. Training for sport is a long, mundane process if you want to continue to play at collegiate and maybe even the professional level. Most young athletes would be far better served getting off of instagram and getting 7-9 hours of sleep, drinking more water and making better choices in the kitchen. If they want to be as good as they say they want to be, it should not be hard to put more effort into those essential parts of being a healthier human/athlete.
You will hear this excuse a lot, “But eating healthy is hard to do”. It’s not, as a S&C coach I really try to stay in my lane, which is not nutrition and supplements, but I do know since the beginning of time people have been following these simple rules of eating. If you can kill it, pick it off a tree or pull it out of the ground – it is probably good to eat.
My take on a creatine, I will let Louie Simmons, the “Godfather” of Strength and Conditioning sum this one up. “Don’t have a $100 pair of shoes and a 10-cent squat!” If an athlete is going to take it, make sure you or their parents have done the research on how to properly dose it and the other precautions to take to ensure safety.
One last quote from someone way smarter than me, “If you get 5-hours of sleep each night, eat like a 6-year old and take creatine, you are an idiot.” I am paraphrasing, but you get the point.
6. What is one thing you appreciate the most about your profession?
The thing I appreciate the most are the people I have been able to develop relationships with and the places it has taken me. The most rewarding part of this job and it’s cliche, but only because it is true, is the bond you build with the athletes and other coaches. That is what makes sports so special, we spend too much time together as a staff and with the players. We do not always agree or get along with each other, but that is what makes it special. We are all striving to reach the same goal: winning a championship. As strength coaches, we spend more time with the athletes than the sport coaches do, so there is a special bond that is built between us and them. And finally, one a more person note, this job has taken me to places I never would have never been otherwise. From Canton, Ohio to the Dominican Republic, the language of the weight room is universal and I have been fortunate enough to be surrounded by coaches and athletes that have made this job so rewarding.
“The pay is great! I did not say anything about the money”
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