Elitetrack: Sport Training & Conditioning

I have been thinking of writing this post for a long time. I have been hesitant because of the risk of pissing off a whole bunch of people, but so be it. I say wake up because those of you that identify yourself as strength coaches are painting yourselves into a corner. The more you chase numbers in the weight room, the more you create adapted athletes that are disconnected with what they are tryi
 
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I completely agree.

Yep…it’s actually been the case for some time. Part of what feeds the problem is that so many sport coaches are completely ignorant on how to condition and physically train there athletes so they bow down to the almighty strength and conditioning coach as the master developer of speed, strength and power and fall prey to the easily quantifiable marks that strength coaches love to use as the mark of progress. While I love testing and think strength is EXTREMELY important I would never let anyone else handle my strength work because 1) I don’t think they could do it better than me, and 2) I like to have control (from a coaching aspect) of all points of their training and micro-regulate loads, volumes, etc as I see fit.

Do you think that would be feasible for a head football coach though? With so many athletes all with different needs I would think there’s no way he could manage the strength & conditioning for the entire team. I think it would be cool if the position coaches were intelligent enough to do specific strength & conditioning for their position though.

Head football coach? No. Assistants could maybe do it but I don’t even think that’s REALLY necessary. If strength coaches (generalizing here I know) would follow the recommendations Vern presented I think that format could work fine for football.

I am not sure I agree entirely with Mike since I know there are cases where a strength coach will do a better job than I can with that particular aspect BUT and it is an overriding “BUT”, anything needs to go through whomever the coach is as far as the priority sport, or for that matter, priority event, for an athlete goes.  Complimentary to the priority is a good way to describe it.  No offense to any strength coach but if it is a track athlete it is the track part that becomes the control, not the other way around.

I believe almost all strength and conditioning coaches have no idea how to form training for track and field athletes.  The strength coaches typical philosophy fits well with team sports specifically football where absolute increases in size, strength, and power mean more than the relative numbers.

I agree with Vern also. Overall sports conditioning is a connection and relationship between many elements of training. More often than not a strength coach will seperate these elements and not alot of actual transfer will happen.

Also, intensities, volumes and even exercises need to be modified/ manipulated due to various factors for individual athletes. With the strength coaches being often so disconected with their teams away from the weight room, i can not see how this can be succesfully done alot of the time…

I certainly would not want any of my athletes “strength and conditioned” by anyone other than me and those i closely trust.

I think it is poor to stereotype all college performance coaches as numbers seeking buffoons who have lost touch with what happens outside of their own facility. I would love to go to all of my teams practices but unfortunately scheduling does not always allow this to happen due to the concurrent training schedules of other teams. In an ideal world we would have 1 or 2 teams but this is not the reality of the situation that we are put into by our institutions.

P.S. I would also be curious to know how many that have posted here in contention against strength coaches have actually met or spoken to a strength coach whose MAIN responsibility is track and field?? and by MAIN I mean their # 1 team that they train.

Damon Davis - 23 September 2008 10:22 PM

I think it is poor to stereotype all college performance coaches as numbers seeking buffoons who have lost touch with what happens outside of their own facility. I would love to go to all of my teams practices but unfortunately scheduling does not always allow this to happen due to the concurrent training schedules of other teams. In an ideal world we would have 1 or 2 teams but this is not the reality of the situation that we are put into by our institutions.

Welcome to the board. Stereotypes are never good BUT I don’t think the thread or anyone stated all of them are like that, just that most of them are. In fact, one of the most influential coaches in my career was Ethan Reeve (currently strength coach at Wake Forest). Anyone who looks at my strength programs can see the influence not to mention the fact the role model he was as a man.

P.S. I would also be curious to know how many that have posted here in contention against strength coaches have actually met or spoken to a strength coach whose MAIN responsibility is track and field?? and by MAIN I mean their # 1 team that they train.

Maybe this is part of the problem..there aren’t any (at least that I’m aware of). So you have a combination of a sport (track) that has arguably the greatest need for a well planned highly integrated strength program getting (in general) the S&C;coaches who are at best splitting their time across multiple sports and at worst the second rate coaches who aren’t good enough for football.

Also, since I was one who jumped on the stereotype bandwagon I’ll be the first to also say that I’m shocked at how little your average S&C;coach knows about speed development or even the underlying physiological principals governing training. Again, not all, but certainly the majority in my experience. What’s worse is that the overwhelming majority are completely ignorant of their deficiencies.

In talking with a local PSU athlete, he told me that PSU has a “track strength coach”.  This was news to me… maybe I misunderstood.  I thought UCLA had one too.

My school suffers from this problem a lot.  All the weight coaches care about are our 117 ranked football team and there is no consistency with what we do on the track at all.  In my years of training they rarely had me doing anything upper body wise because they don’t make different workouts for sprinters, jumpers, multi’s and my throwing events only improved a little bit in 2 yrs.  Now with my new program and lifting on my own i already am beating my PR’s in the jav and discus.

I am a head college softball coach, and I agree with Mike—I would never allow anyone else to train my athletes in the weight room.  I know exactly what I want to accomplish and how it all ties in together.  That being said, a lot of other coaches come to me for help with their team because they have no clue what to do when it comes to S&C.

Maxx,

I would inquire how as a head coach you have the time to evaluate, program and train all your athletes from a movement and performance standpoint in their general biomotor development along with the other duties that you carry on as a head coach which I would imagine would also involve planning practice, leading your staff, administrative responsibilities and recruiting.

Do you attend and coach every session from the field to the weight room? Do you also handle all their recovery modalities including nutrition and soft tissue work as well? What level do you coach at? Is the multi-tasking due to a need because you do not have a competent professional that you can communicate your needs for your athletes with on a daily basis?

Sorry for all the questions, I am just curious on how all this gets accomplished without something taking a backseat in the quality and efficiency department.