Introducing Strength and Conditioning to Freshmen

As the new school year begins, our incoming freshman are getting their first exposure to collegiate strength and conditioning. Much to their surprise a lot of them probably won’t grab a heavy weight for a few more weeks. Like most things in life, when it comes to proper weight lifting you must learn to walk before you can run.

When an athlete comes to us as a freshman we have no real idea on his or her experience with strength training or conditioning. Some may have come from high schools with an excellent strength program and some might have never worked out in their lives. As a strength staff we must introduce them to the world of strength and conditioning in a manner that will not only keep them healthy in the short term, but also set them up for long term progress and success.

The first phase of this introductory period is a basic movement competency screen. This phase tests our athletes on movements that we intend to load at some point in their training. They must prove to us that they have the joint mobility, body control, and kinesthetic sense to master these movements before we can load them. Our athletes are given a lot of reps with bodyweight and sometimes banded assistance to help them “groove the pattern.” This period is important because this is their opportunity to learn some of our coaching cues, as well as understand what we are looking for when we ask them to perform a movement. They may not be moving heavy weight around, but they are allowing their bodies to master certain movements so that when they become loaded the movements are automatic. We also use this time to strengthen their cores, and introduce them to some basic finishers to keep their strength and work capacity from digressing.

The next phase is going to work as their introduction to weight lifting. They should have an understanding of how to move properly, so now we begin to load them with weight. They might be on a program similar to the one used by their teammates, but with lower volume to allow more time for us to teach and coach them. This period also teaches them things about the weightroom that will be important for them to work efficiently with their teammates. Things like loading a barbell, using dumbbells, reading their programs and recording their weights might be new to some so this period is a good chance to learn how to work within the weightroom.

Finally, they should be ready to begin working on the same program as their teammates. By now they should have mastered basic movements, and have sufficient experience within a weightroom environment to understand what we expect from them. This learning process is designed to ensure their safety as well as eliminating any bad habits they might have picked up outside a good strength and conditioning program. This sets them up very well for a long term training career, as well as develops a positive attitude towards the weightroom.

Regen Fridays

We’ve started a new tradition here at UCSD; every Friday we’ve dedicated a set time to regeneration. Anyone who’s been training for awhile understands the importance of regeneration, however, it seems to be the first thing we all tend to forget. Hopefully, making Regen Fridays a tradition will prevent our athletes and staff from forgetting this all too important piece of the puzzle. It’s our job as the strength and conditioning staff to help our athletes perform to the best of their abilities. This includes helping them recover properly so that they can make the appropriate adaptations to all the sundry of stressors they will encounter in their athletic season. Regeneration work is necessary not only for tissue quality but also to give the central nervous system time to recover

The staples of Regen Friday are self-myofascial release, stretching, and mobility work. We’ve incorporated the use of the foam roller for each athlete. The roller aids in releasing the adhesions and knots that tighten up our muscles. We also spend time improving range of motion in our joints, and counterbalancing any discrepancies that have likely developed from overuse. We encourage the use of contrast showers, where you alternate between hot and cold water promoting blood flow and recovery. Ice baths are also great, as they reduce inflammation and allow for better blood flow.

We’re also excited to explore new ideas for regeneration work. Things like hot yoga, saunas, or different forms of cryotherapy are all open for potential Regen Fridays.

National Champs

A HUGE congratulations to the UCSD Triton Softball team on winning their first ever National Championship! Way to go ladies.

Non Traditional Inseason Training

With this blog post I want to talk about the non traditional approach we took with the in season training of our Baseball team. The video’s that precede this post reflect phases I, II, & III of our in season model. This probably comes as a shock to most. I’ll admit it does look like early offseason work capacity and by first glance I don’t think anyone would presume what they were seeing was in season training, conference season no less, even if given 3 guesses. In season training for most consists of managing fatigue, holding on to as much hard earned strength and power as possible and avoiding anything risky as competition is of primary importance. The exercises of an in season lift typically consist of variations of a multi joint movement and volume is low with intensity being moderate to high. Why the change in formula?

In January we were approached by the baseball coaching staff for our usual meeting regarding the training plan. My staff and I received the challenging news. Class schedules, practice schedules and the fact that the weight room is not nearby the baseball field (and like most campuses parking is a nightmare) was going to make a traditional offseason lift schedule highly unlikely. We were challenged to be creative and put together workouts that could be done right out at the baseball field – in the outfield, foul territory and warning track to be exact. Getting creative is what we do at UCSD. We sat down and made a plan, took some equipment we already had, bought the rest of what we needed and presto. The preceding videos of this year’s CCAA conference champions are a glance of some of the movements that we employed as in season training. Although it went against the grain and wasn’t by the book, the work done was hard, the team enjoyed what they were doing and most importantly they bought into what we created for them. I believe the style of in season training that we did this season was a success and will become a tradition for the UCSD Triton Baseball team in the coming years.

Babseball In-Season Finale

RD's or Nutritionists

Here is a blog with a little insight regarding the differences between dietitians and nutritionists.

RD vs. Nutritionist

Congratulations on a great season

Congrats to the UCSD Baseball and Softball teams. The baseball team finished their season with a 42-15 record, the conference championship, and a berth in the NCAA regionals. The softball team is still playing, reaching their first ever NCAA Nationals with a sweep in the Super Regional.

UCSD in the news

Brainy UCSD gets chance to flex its athletic muscles

Check out this article (click text above). It gives you a good idea how much success we've had this spring and where our athletic department is going.

UCSD Strength and Conditioning

2011 UCSD Baseball Speed Training

A Fireside Chat on CNS Fatigue

More is better. This methodology is predominant not just in the field of strength and conditioning, but also in general lifestyle of the average American. More stuff, more food, more money, more Starbucks. As coaches often time we want more effort from an athlete and it just isn’t there. More can be worse when it comes to working with higher level athletes. One of many reasons why more isn’t necessarily better is “Central Nervous System” fatigue.

CNS fatigue is the blanket term used by many professionals in athletics that usually encompasses two things: Peripheral Nervous System (PNS) fatigue and (CNS) Central Nervous System fatigue. PNS fatigue involves a breakdown in the interaction between the Nervous system and the Muscle cells. CNS involves a breakdown in the function of the brain and spinal cord’s ability to execute movements and motor programs. For all intents and purposes let’s call both terms CNS fatigue.

So how can you fatigue the CNS? Think shortest duration, highest intensity. For sprints the closer you get to 100% effort the more taxing on the CNS the activity is. Sprint starts, 100 yard sprints, high intensity (heavy) sled pulls, high volumes of max effort med-ball tosses are all CNS intensive. In the weight room doing heavy strength work on bigger movements (Deadlift, Squat, Clean) to failure also taxes the CNS. If athletes are moving weight heavy enough to keep their repetitions down to 5 or less, then the CNS is producing the lion’s share of the force. When intensity decreases to allow for more reps (6-12+) the muscle organ itself is mostly affected. Pretty basic stuff so far, right? What people tend to overlook is that there is a finite store of energy (for lack of a better term) that athletes can pull out of their CNS. Many coaches tend to overestimate this amount of energy and underestimate the amount of recovery time necessary to refill this “gas tank”.

If athletes “don’t have it today” in the weight room or aren’t hitting weights simply because they “don’t have it” many times it is due to their CNS being fatigued. If a high level sprinter has been hitting several 100% sprints at 100m and does a personal best that day in practice and then goes and tries to lift heavy on squat and is having trouble and the coach wonders “hey, what’s going on here?” then that coach needs to drop everything and go read Charlie Francis’ Training Systems and if that doesn’t work… well the world needs plenty of bartenders, my friend. Higher level athletes (college and above) should be treated like a high end sports car as opposed to a snow plow that you can work into the ground. Athletes should be fresh and be able to produce the highest quality in order to produce the best gains. The proper rest time to allow for full CNS recovery can be 48 hours to 10 full days depending on the athlete. An Olympic level athlete that completely drains their CNS will need 10 days. The lower the athletes level of skill and proficiency at the exercise the less time is needed for this recovery. A junior varsity sprinter at high school level won’t need 10 days for their CNS to recover from doing full sprints; they might need 2-3 days at the most. Again, much of this is dependant on the individual needs of the athlete.

So, how does a coach adjust their programming accordingly? First of all, coaches need to look at what athletes are doing before they come in to workout. Does the athlete have practice before they come in? If so, what are they doing in practice? Have they been sleeping well? Are they stressed (can anyone say Cortisol)? These are all things a coach should consider. Many coaches aren’t in a position to know all the details of their athletes’ personal life, however there are things that even coaches with multiple large teams can consider. Just one example is trying to Max cleans or squat during finals week. How much effort will a sleep deprived, stressed athlete coming down off of a week-long Caffeine high?

The coach should always be aware of the athlete’s CNS state. If an athlete is in a state where their CNS is fatigued it will many times look like a general state of malaise. Sleeplessness, lack of concentration, and even trembling post-workout are all signs CNS fatigue. Grip strength is a simple indicator of CNS readiness. Remember the homunculus model learned in college A&P? A huge area of the brain is dedicated to the hands. Using a grip dynamometer to measure baseline strength level and then testing where athletes measure up too can be a great indicator of how ready their CNS is for heavy work. A cheaper option would be to get some Captains of Crush grip trainers from Iron Mind (as recommended by Gray Cook and Brett Jones) and test how times the athletes can completely touch the ends.

According to Charlie Francis, “All CNS work should be very high quality work in terms of effort and technique.” If a player is lagging, sometimes it isn’t just because they’re lazy (sometimes they are just lazy) it could be because their CNS is fried. Not everything can be fixed by heavy back squats and power cleans. Rest needs to be thought of as a training element like any other.

UCSD Baseball Caveman Day

Lateral Speed Development Episode IV (really I) An Epic Description of Athletic Position in Prose Format.

Lateral Speed Development 101-
The development of lateral speed is not that far different from linear movement. The goals still remain the same, producing a big force, in a short amount of time, in the proper direction, and through an optimum range of motion. Note the proper direction in bold, it is probably the most critical part. Lateral speed development is multi directional and can be synonymous with the term agility. Agility can be defined as: The ability to execute a complex chain of movements in a fast and graceful manner. Developing agility and multi-direction skills is a summation of some specific qualities. These qualities are dynamic balance, coordination, strength and power, reaction and anticipation. Enhancement of these qualities is probably best accomplished with a part to whole method; they should be broken down into steps that are progressed from simple to complex. Very similar to the way you would develop linear acceleration via a wall drill march, to a wall drill 5 count. That is taking a complex motor pattern and breaking it down to a part (piston leg action) and simple (march) to complex (5count run). We shall treat the development of lateral speed in the same pedagologically sound manner.
The engine in lateral speed development is also very similar to that of linear acceleration, which is of course triple extension of the hip knees and ankles. The obvious difference is that rather than extending in the sagittal (or the sag as Coach Dobbler likes to call it) you are utilizing the hips in the frontal and transverse range of motion. Even though the direction of movement is changed the goal remains the same you are focused on projecting the center of mass towards the intended direction by using optimal body position and efficient mechanics that influence factors of force application.
Ok, so getting down to the nitty gritty before we get to the actual drills which will be in another section. Gray cook speaks of a term, I believe he coined called, Energy Leaks. What he means by this is that somewhere in your kinetic linking, lack of mobility, inefficient movement there is energy being wasted. The best real world example I can think of is a vertical jump. Vertical jump as high as you can, now try to match that same vertical jump while in a sand pit. Different? Even though you are expending the same amount of energy on sand as you are on the gym floor there is less force production in the proper direction. The sand was your energy leak. Your goal was to project you hips as vertical as possible (direction) however some of the energy was lost, leaked, eaten, is now floating around the cosmos somewhere. According to Newton it was lost as heat in the sand, since energy can’t be made or destroyed. I digress…. The point of the story is if all of your energy is not going in the intended direction, up,down,left,right, then you are not aligned right, and you are working a lot harder then you should be.
Proper alignment for lateral speed development is a difficult to put an exact method to, since sport is so unpredictable, no single body alignment can be described. However general guidelines can be put into place. This will act as your “base position” or your “athletic position. On a side note, I usually ask my athletes why it is called athletic position, they can all demo it, but why is it called that? DuH, it is the most athletic position and neutral position the human body can be in. You can see a derivative of it in any sport, from a linebacker, to a golfer, to Mike Phelps about to explode in the pool for a bazillionth gold medal.
So what is athletic position?... Oh Alright, I will tell you… Did you think I would leave you hanging? Athletic position is characterized by sitting the hips back, placing the feet shoulder width apart and leaning slightly forward at the waist, keeping your “pillar” rigid. Keeping your pillar rigid will help put the pelvic in a favorable position and make the thoracic spine rigid, helping in power transfer. The chest and shoulders should be over the knee, allowing the torso to be parallel to the forward (positive) shin angle of the shins. The knees should be aligned just inside the feet with the weight placed on the inside balls of the feet. This description of athletic position is favorable for two reasons: One being that a positive angle of the torso and shins are created when the athlete leans forward this is significant for forward movement because optimal leverage is made between the ground and the center of mass. Secondly with the knees inside the toes, another application of positive angles and leverage is made for lateral movement. The key thing to take away from this is positive shin angles within a base of support that will assist in an athlete’s ability to accelerate, decelerate cut and jump whenever it is necessary, in the proper direction. Note the bolding of proper direction. It was also bolded in paragraph one. Way to bring the article full circle!
Until next time! We will discuss how to move around out of the athletic position

Building a Strength and Conditioning Program

The development of a successful strength and conditioning program requires systematic planning and deliberate implementation of supported principles. My name is Rudy Thomas and I am the director of strength and conditioning at The University of California San Diego. All of my mentors and professional coaching experiences along with my own athletic career have molded my philosophy and approach in building a program from the ground up. The following is an inside look at the key principles and foundations that we adhere to.

Note: Below are merely generalities. Constructing an athlete is similar to constructing a house. You must start with a strong well built foundation before moving on to any of the finer points. Without that, the rest cannot be.

Keys to successful athletes

1. Durability – Build durable athletes who can tolerate intense training while resisting injury. An athlete cannot continue progressive overload when they are in the athletic training room instead of the weight room.
2. Speed – Speed is the most sought after attribute for athletes. Some athletes have it, all want and need it, but few are willing to train for it. “First to the ball, first up the court, first to the point of attack: wins”
3. Strength/Power – The aim is to maximize athletes’ force production and rate thereof. If the body is strong it has the ability to be powerful. Strength and power combine for overall athleticism.
4. Specificity – As a coach, train to augment specific attributes required by athletes to be successful in their given sport. Your job is not to mimic the sport directly in training, but to improve skills that will transcend to more efficient movement within competition. Focus on general qualities and improving them to the athlete’s genetic limit. Sport coaches can then utilize these improved qualities when teaching the specific movements of the sport. “We move, but we move to make them better movers, not to reproduce every movement of the sport. We lift weights, but not to make them better weight lifters. We lift to make them stronger, more durable, and confident, thus more successful.”
5. Intensity – Foster and encourage the competitive spirit of every athlete that enters the weight room. Athletes should learn to love working-out, and competing not only against the weight, but against each other and themselves.

Approach

General qualities to evaluate and improve

1. Evaluation- Start with a Functional Movement. It is important to have a baseline or benchmark of movement capability, whether good or bad.
2. Work Capacity –Increase an athlete’s ability to sustain effort.
3. Hypertrophy – Increase the size and mass of muscle.
4. Strength – Focus on increasing production and display of force
5. Strength Speed – Increase the rate at which an athlete produces force.
6. Speed Strength – Increase ability to produce force during high velocity movements.
7. Speed – Increase absolute acceleration, sprint and movement velocity.

Expectations and Treatment of Athletes

Responsibilities of Student - Athletes

1. Have a positive attitude and give a winner’s effort. Attitude and effort cannot be taught.
2. Always make selfless, team oriented decisions. Is this good for my team?
3. Be prepared to accept the consequences, positive or negative, of your actions.

Coaching healthy athletes

1. Expect more of athletes then they feel they are capable of. Provide the environment and tools necessary to succeed.
2. Different individuals will undoubtedly require certain coaching techniques, motivation, and instruction. However, the priority should be to train ATHLETES regardless of gender, sport, or skill. No matter what, maintain the same standards, professionalism, and commitment to all athletes.

Coaching injured athletes

1. Empathize. Be disappointed in their misfortune, but move forward. Never baby an injured athlete or ostracize them as if they’re no longer a part of their respective team. Discuss their capabilities not handicaps.

Wrap up

Building a successful collegiate strength and conditioning program should be a fluid process that can be adapted when novel obstacles and needs arise. However, it’s important to adhere to the central principles that will guide your training philosophy. A strong foundation and well-defined philosophy prevents the development of conflicting training approaches. With a strong foundation, the specific goals of different teams and athletes can be achieved while maintaining the integrity of a well-designed program.

Is programming for yourself always a good idea?

Recently, I did something I rarely, if ever do…allow someone else to write a workout program for me. There were so many ideas swimming around in my head that settling on just one seemed near impossible. I had fallen victim to what I call over active brain syndrome. Every idea that popped in my head or cool clip from a video found its way into my workouts. Switching up workouts on a week-to-week even day-to-day basis became the norm not the exception. Sound familiar?

Is it hard lesson for strength and conditioning professionals to learn? Maybe. Is it a valuable lesson? Absolutely. As coaches we spend time trying to protect athletes from their own overzealous lifting plans (i.e. Can we increase the weight?). I too had become an overzealous athlete in the weight room. My workouts had become an exercise shooting gallery, with me manning the machine gun. It was just a matter of what target would be hit on any given day. Trying to address every known aspect of training, mobility, stability, and activation was just one of many mistakes. Based on my observations, coach’s fall into three subcategories regarding their personal workout regimen. There are the coaches I call ‘Hardcore’ – who can and do adhere to a strict “never miss” regimen – the ‘super busy’ coaches who can’t workout – and the guys in the middle, ones that fit a workout in where and when they can. I respect all three situations and like most, wish I fell in the “hardcore” category. However, as a college strength and conditioning coach and department head, the realistic demands of training multiple teams and handling administrative work quickly set it. Therefore, I now reside somewhere in the middle.

A fellow coach once said, “The strength coach that programs for himself has a fool for a trainer.” When I first heard this quote, I paid it no mind. In the past, I needed the practice developing programs and more recently, I was just too proud. Echoes of “You’re being lazy!” or “I’m a coach, I write workouts everyday – why not for myself?” raced through my head. The bottom line was; I was getting in my own way. Nearly every workout was either too long or nearly impossible to complete. With this realization and some gained wisdom, I adapted my thought process on self-programming to accommodate my new time demands. I relinquished control in a sense, allowing one of my interns to write a program for me. I offered a list of my past injuries, training goals and current training limitations and requested a new workout design. Since beginning the new program, although not in my comfort zone, things have been going quite well. The early success of my new program has convinced me that self-programming can often be a detriment. I think I can say with honesty – Lesson Learned.

Good workout! No that was just the Warmup!

Why spend a lot of time Designing a good warm up? Yes, I realize it is not very fun. It is probably about as sexy as doing laundry and taxes for some. It is not nearly as glamorous as squat progressions, acceleration training, a density circuit or getting someone to do a full squat snatch. Everything in the program development has its place, and a warmup is just another segment that should be given a ton of attention. I feel it should be even given more attention than the weights. I feel strongly that weightlifting and other forms of progressive strength training are second in the sports performance word. I feel the acquisition of movement skill, proper kinetic linking, and injury reduction are far more important for sport. If you can squat 500lbs but get hurt landing from a grabbing a basketball off the board then you are not useful to your team. So what does make a good warmup?
A good warmup serves 3 big purposes. First it serves a physiological purpose, 2nd a performance enhancement purpose , and finally 3rd an injury reduction purpose. I say reduction because it is a weaker word. If I could PREVENT all injuries, I would be making a lot more money than I do now. The physiological portion of the warmup is the bread and butter of the entire process. A warmup increases core body temperature, increases blood circulation to muscles, increase elastic and contractile muscle action, stimulate the nervous system, and increase joint mobility. As the bodies core temperature increases, the viscosity of muscle, tendons and ligaments increases. An increase temperature in muscle also allows it to contract with more force and in less time. BIG DEAL! It is a HUGE deal my dear readers! The change in muscular viscosity is going to facilitate greater ranges of motion. This is going to optimize movement mechanics and increase force production to create better movement. All of this good stuff is going to help create an optimal environment for the movement training that is going to be just ahead, and finally the strength training that will supplement and bring the entire workout full circle.
The first thing on the list of designing a warmup is general thermogenic work. 5mins of an easy jog, jumping jacks, jumping rope, even basic ladder drills. As long as it creates a slight perspiration, the body is ready to progress to the next phase. This next phase should be muscle activation. This is a revision of my old concept of warming up(which was activation at end) , but I picked it up will interning at API. The trunk muscles and the glute muscles should be “turned on” or the nomenclature is activated. The reason this is so important is your body is a very complex smart computer system, and sometimes it just forgets how to innervate and use muscles in a non compensatory fashion. It really just needs to be reminded. So doing a lot of glute bridge, monster walks, planks, side blanks, will sort of jar the memory of your CNS and get you to use those muscles. The third phase is going to be general mobility and some rudimentary strength. This is going to prepare the body for the more dynamic movement coming up, as well as work on asymmetry issues that are sure to arise from playing sport. A few examples in this category would be squats, lateral squat, crossover squat, hip circles. Anything that will start to globally mobilize a joint and turn on a lot of muscles and helping to increase core body temperature further. After this section I would start to put in basic movement skills. Anything that will help to pattern a new movement pattern is great. I like skips, Askips, linear skips, crossovers, cariocas. All of these movements can and should evolve into more complex movement as the warmup and your entire program progesses.. An example of more advance movement prep skills would be double A skips, Bskips, Fast leg alternates, skip and scoops, scoop and pivot, lunge scoop and pivot etc etc. Just adding more layers as the athlete advances. Starting simple to complex is the best method. The brain will also become cognitively active from the novelty of these new more advance movements. This will help stimulate a lot more nueral synapses and in general make a better athlete. Finally I like to do neural activation. Which would be a series of fast feet, 2 inch runs, anything to get the muscles firing at top speed. This would normally top of the Warmup, the athlete will have gotten some ESD ( energy system work) and the athletes CNS is firing on all cylinders. This will help to create a good environment to start with your plyometric and speed program and then finish up in the weight room.

Adam Dobler Hypertrophy Phase 2/11

Snatch 3x3 (light technique work)

Main Lift:
Bench Press 3x8

Circuit (Minimal Rest) x 4
Smooth Bumper Plate Farmer Walk L/R
Plate Cirucit: Front Raise, Upright Row, OH Press
Prowler Sled Push 20yds high handles, 20yds low handles

Adam Dobler: Hypertrophy phase 2/9

Wednesday February 9th
Medicine Ball Throws: 2 sets of 5 Vertical toss + 5 Standing Chest Pass

Main Lift:
-Back Squat 3x8 increasing weight 20lbs each 'working set' and peak on third

Superset 1:
DB Bench Press 3x8
Pull up (w/ weight vest) 3x8

Superset 2:
Barbell RDL 3x8
Prone BW Skullcrushers 3x8

Adam Dobler: Hypertrophy phase 2/7

Monday, February 7th
Hypertrophy Phase Day 1, Week 1

Main Lift:
Trap Bar Deadlift: 3x 8 paired with ankle mobility

Quad Set:
DB Military 3x8
SA Towel Pull 3x8
GH Raise (Extension into GH Raise) 3x8
Stability Ball "stir the pot" 3x 5ea direction

5 hours later...

Tempo Runs (barefoot in the grass) 70-75% for 100s and 60% for 200s
1st set 4x100 walking 50yds in between each.
2nd set 100, 100, 200, 100, 100, 200 walking 50yds in between each.

Triton Baseball 105kg Hang Clean

Triton Baseball Hang Clean Videos

Taken from our most recent hang clean test day.  Enjoy.

Interns

This is the maiden posting on the Triton Performance Blog. I thought it was fitting that it be about interns since one of my current interns, Chris Wicus, launched our blog. If you're a coach and reading this you may be gasping for air thinking "why would you let an intern do that." My response is that starting blogs as well as many other things that we encourage our interns to do are just a few of the ways that we set our strength and conditioning department and our intern experience apart from others.

If you've been in the field awhile chances are you've done one if not multiple unpaid (or very low paying) internships. It's just one of the many necessities of being in this particular business. All coaches have done them and most can recount (now laughing about it) horror stories about the long hours they spent "on the floor" and how they spent a great deal of time being a very well educated janitor. I believe it is getting better these days but unfortunetly there was a time when being an intern meant a lot of picking up towels, cleaning machines, floors, barbells, dumbells, even toilets - but without much learning. Which I believe is what an intern is there to do.

At UCSD I've taken a different approach from that of my colleagues. I guess I would call my internship program an "advanced internship" for multiple reasons. One - I don't hire many students right out of college or those that need and internship for college credit. It's not that I won't, I just prefer an individual who is more seasoned as a coach. In hiring a more seasoned coach, I expect them to do just that, coach. I tell fellow coaches as well as my new interns that I run my intern program for the purpose of developing future coaches and so that they can leave our program better than they found it.

With that in mind I need them out on the floor coaching. Now don't get me wrong - it doesn't happen day one, but once they feel comfortable and I feel comfortable with them - I expect them to be out there assisting our athletes. Because I try to hire more experienced interns I also expect them to be able to contribute in our discusssions regarding programming. It has been my experience that many of my interns have had and continue to have very valuable insights pertaining to athlete preparation. Like I said, I wouldn't hire them if I didn't think they could contribute. I don't want to say that my approach is the best or the only way. Without question, a lot of what I do with regards to interns my run contrary to many of my colleagues who say interns shouldnt do anything but set up and tear down or help spot. I've even helped endorse intern programs that are different than mine, but in this day and age we are measured by what we accomplish as well as the people we associate with. With that in mind my goal is to never allow an intern to leave my charge having not been fully prepared as possible to be a successful coach. Remember, many interns travel great distances on their own dime to work very hard for us for little to no pay - we as coaches owe it to them to give them our best in every way possible.