What We Learned at the Centre College Strength Coach Clinic

This past weekend, I was lucky enough to attend the Centre College Strength and Conditioning Coaches clinic. It was a collection of strength and conditioning coaches and physical therapists in a room together to get better for their athletes and clients. Read on to hear what I learned from each guest and how it will make Zenith Strength and Conditioning an even better place to train!

1. Jeremy Carlson - NEW Deputy Athletic Director at Centre College

Coach Carlson will begin serving as the Deputy AD this summer, but he has been the one organizing this clinic for 3 years now. He highlighted how he arranged the roster of speakers and what it means to really connect with people in your profession. Carlson began as a strength coach at Centre (his alma mater) in 2017 after a collegiate soccer career. He sent messages to many, many coaches asking to talk and receive advice, and how several of the people in front of the room this weekend were the ones that answered him. What I learned from him was a reinforcement that human beings are relationship driven. We need to connect with others because we are always better together. I appreciated getting to be in a room with other like minded coaches this weekend

2. Logan Neff - Director of Strength and Conditioning at Indian Hill High School in Cincinnati. OH

Coach Neff delivered the best talk I’ve heard about culture, trust, and influence. Many coaches, professionals, and people in general know and preach the importance of these three soft skills. However; very few provide tangible tips to improve them, and even fewer provide an organized framework for approaching them. He shared his 3 Pillars of trust (character + competency + connection = influence) and the 4 step conversation framework. Both of these can easily be remembered in high stress or uncomfortable conversations. And I am a firm believer that you do not rise to the occasion, you sink to the level of your training. These frameworks will be used at Zenith to help better connect with not only our athletes but the parents and support systems of those athletes. Their simplicity and effective message are what make them easily accessible in stressful conversations.

3. Mike Snyder - Head Strength and Conditioning Coach at Trinity High School in Louisville, KY

Coach Snyder spoke about speed development, specifically in-season. The line that really stuck with me from this presentation was about space. Coach Snyder said “football is about space. We try to create it on offense and take it away on defense.” I think that extends out to many if not all sports. Its the same in basketball, soccer, lacrosse, field hockey, and even sprinting. The person who covers more ground in less time wins most athletic endeavors. Thats what the old saying “speed kills” means in different words. Coach Snyder also shared the 3 pillars to develop speed: adequate rest, max intent, and technical focus. Adequate rest means allowing the body to properly recover between reps and sessions to allow it to express its top speed as often as possible. The body adapts to what we regularly ask it to do (SAID principle for you sports science guys reading this.) That means if we want speed, we have to display it more frequently. If that means we wait 1-2 more minutes between most reps, then thats more than worth it in my eyes. Max intent should be obvious but often isn’t. Sprinting is one of the hardest things the human body can endure, so you better give it your all or you’re just going to be jogging. And technical focus is what most coaches miss when developing speed in my opinion. To keep things simple for this post, good sprinting covers as much ground with the hips/center of mass as possible with each stride. Everything else is details to make that happen. With some guys that means shortening the stride because they “break” when their foot hits, and for others it involves improving hip extension mobility to keep pushing the floor longer each step, but we want to cover ground and do it quickly. 

4. Nate Harvey - EliteFTS in Columbus, OH 

Coach Harvey spoke on Circa max squatting. Basically, it is good old fashioned maximal effort work. While speed, conditioning, and mobility rightfully have their place in the preparation of any athlete. However; heavy lifting does a lot of good for a lot of athletes when dosed correctly. The biggest takeaway from Coach Harvey in my opinion was the phrase “The traits you train display themselves 3-4 weeks later.” He credited it to Dr. Yuri Verkoshansky, and I think everyone without training experience needs to hear it. The body takes time to adapt, and the more advanced you are the smaller and longer the adaptations will likely take. 

5. Cody Hughes - CLH Strength and Lipscomb Academy in Nashville, TN 

Coach Hughes gave a presentation on Velocity based Training (VBT). He kept it very simple and applicable, which we all need. He defined velocity, educated us on what a VBT device measures, told us how we could use it in our weight rooms for all sorts of different applications, and showed us examples from all sorts of different athletes. The biggest takeaway Coach Hughes delivered for parents and athletes to hear is that peak POWER is the main adaptation all athletes should be chasing, rather than just maximal strength. As Coach Harvey emphasized, there is nothing wrong with being strong. However; that is not the endpoint. Power is force multiplied by velocity in physics terms. Coach Hughes shared a study he conducted using VBT that revealed peak power on the back squat occurred across almost all athletes he tested at 0.9 meters per second in the back squat. For context; a one rep max back squat for an athlete with experience in the weight room may be 0.35 meters per second or slower. The top 10 fastest in game sprint speeds in college football last season peaked at over 9.5 meters per second. In order to maximize power, coaches need to expose athletes to a mix of heavy movements, fast movements, and movements in the middle. Velocity Based Training is simply a protocol to measure and analyze the speed of a barbell as well as the weight on it. What that can allow a skilled coach to do is provide immediate feedback to an athlete about each rep, get more precise with weights they need to use that given day, and further maximize their strength and power development by achieving specific adaptations. Lastly, Coach Huges shared with us the 4 major ways in which he utilizes VBT devices. He provides athletes feedback for each rep, uses it as a governor of intensity with low training age athletes, adjusts training maxes each week for precise load prescription on the bar, and uses velocity loss within a set to allow fatigue to dictate that days workload. 

Each of us in attendance at Centre college this past weekend grew as coaches. We shared ideas, connected with like minded professionals in our field, and learned new skills and principles for our athletes and clients. I was very lucky to be able to attend, and everyone in the Zenith Strength and Conditioning Family will be better because of it!