December 2014 Blog Posts (32)

Instead of looking at ways to predict injury and search for hidden dysfunctions I prefer to spend the time looking at possibilities to determine their level of trainability. I focus on what the athlete can do and use that as a starting point. In most cases the athlete has made it to a certain level because of what they can do. My job is to enhance those abilities and minimize the weaknesses while addressing them in a…

Build your athletes from the ground up. Emphasize training movements that connect and coordinate. Start with fundamental movements and add complexity as the athlete’s gain mastery of the fundamentals. Don’t worry  about being sport specific; instead emphasize movements that are sport appropriate to prepare the athlete for the sport demands. Take your time, adaptation takes time it will not happen overnight. If you don’t…

Doing more is quite seductive. Often when you begin to do more the returns are quite impressive, so the temptation is do even more. The logic is didn’t I just make big improvements by doing more? So you do more – more training sessions, more weight, more mileage on and on. What’s the result? The more is better blues – If you are lucky it is just stagnation, a plateau, if not it is an injury or steep regression. There is…

In this podcast series I interview Jenn Shirkani, author of 'Ego Vs EQ' discussing the role that ego plays in coaching your best.  Here in part one we cover:

• What inspired you to write this book?
• Define Emotional Intelligence and tell us why a coach needs…

Preface: I'm writing this, not because I feel like I've achieved anything incredibly significant, but because I want to help others that are or will be in the same position as myself the past four year.

Also, my journey is not the only way to go. I just want to show one way that can work, since it did for me.

This essay/letter originally went live at 10:00am on Saturday, December 20th, 2014. The significance of this exact time is…

When you get down to it, those in our profession, for the most part are working to train "bodies in motion."  "Bodies" both figuratively and quantitatively.  This concept relates directly to the…

As I wrote this series of posts and reflected on the lessons I learned I wanted to summarize with some practical conclusions so that young coaches and athletes starting out would not make the same mistakes I made. There is no form of human motion that does not require some expression of force; therefore all sports will derive benefit from sport appropriate strength training. The physical quality of strength is the…

In the last twenty years as have had the opportunity to work with a variety of sports and I was exposed to many theories and methods, but basically I found that at the end of the day it all came back to executing the basics of sound training principles consistently. It is so easy and somewhat trendy to copy the latest and greatest strength-training program of a great team or athlete, the monkey see, monkey do syndrome.…

Looks like Nebraska has found their replacement as James Dobson moves to the Vanderbilt program.  Mark Philipp is the new Nebraska football strength coach reporting to both Mike Riley and Boyd Epley:  http://www.cornnation.com/2014/12/20/7427587/mark-philipp-nebraska-huskers-strength-conditioning-james-dobson

Things began to change rapidly with the advent of the full-time professional “Strength Coach.” In the seventies very few colleges had strength coaches and if they did most of their attention was centered on football. In professional sport there were few full time strength coaches. In 1976 Bob Ward who was the track coach at Fullerton College in California, was hired by the Dallas Cowboys. He had a full time year around…

Another key milestone in the evolution of my ideas on training in general and strength training in particular was the 1972 AAU Learn by Doing track & field clinic in Sacramento, California. Many of the top track & filed coaches in the country were in attendance. The opportunity to interact with them was invaluable. Two of the “Learn by Doing” stations were devoted to Plyometric training that was new and…

In this episode Coach Ron McKeefrey and I discuss the following topics:

• What’s your definition of a coach?
• Summarize your story of how and why you became a coach?
• How do you create accountability in your program?
• What lessons does your story offer upcoming…

That spring, in my first track coaching assignment, I got the opportunity to coach one of the best athletes I have ever coached, Sam Cunningham. He became California State Champion in the Shot put that year and also an All American football running back. He was 6’3” tall, weighed 225, he could run the 100 in 9.7, but by my thinking he was “weak, “ because he could not lift much weight in the weight room. Yet he had…

Through articles in Strength and Health and watching the track team at Fresno State weight train I quickly realized that the sport of track & field was very advanced in the use of weight training. Herb Elliot, who dominated the mile up through the Rome Olympics, and his coach Percy Cerruty made extensive use of strength training. Perry OBrien, the first man to throw sixty feet in the shot put was an…

I will take a personal approach to the evolution of strength training using my experiences as an athlete and coach who has been involved in strength training since 1963. When I began weight training in 1963, it was not commonly accepted as a method of training, in fact most coaches discouraged weight training. There were concerns that you would become “muscle bound,” tight, that it would slow you down, or it would…

How To Get Better At Getting Better

Eastern Michigan: Eastern Michigan University Sports Performance is looking for qualified strength and conditioning interns for the Winter 2015 semester. The internship will begin Monday January 5th- Monday April 20th 2015. This is an unpaid internship, however this is a great opportunity to gain experience. Responsibilities include: assisting with the supervision and training of Eastern Michigan University’s 21 Division I intercollegiate athletic programs, assisting with…