(l-r) JL Holdsworth, Mark Simoneau, John Welborn, yours truly, Joe Kenn, and Mike Robertson

I have been fortunate to have the opportunity to attend, speak at, and host several strength and conditioning clinics each year since about 1998. I have seen the amount of preparation and anxiety associated with these events regardless of how small they are.

The first clinic I put on myself was in 2007 and we had more speakers than attendees. No, really. It was the Central Ohio Strength and Conditioning Coaches Clinic and Jack Hatem, Derek Fry, Shawn Flanagan and myself presented to 3 high school coaches. That event grew in all aspects and the last year we hosted it in 2011, we had over 15 speakers covering a 2-day event.

If there was a mistake to me made when putting on a clinic, I have made it. The possibility of not giving the attendees the best possible experience they've paid for would keep me up at night when I was given the opportunity to host clinics. Professional development may be the backbone of this ever-changing industry. Coaches depend on clinics and conferences for learning, networking, and maintaining a certain level of sanity but stepping back away from the day to day grind.

The amount of clinics, seminars, and conferences I have attended, combined with the events I hosted, enables me to draw from those experiences and put together a somewhat comprehensive list for coaches thinking of hosting their own clinic. I have given my best ideas on ways to get the most out of attending clinics and conferences. But, what if you are a coach or business owner interested in putting on a clinic yourself?

In my opinion, there are 5 areas of concern when hosting a strength and conditioning clinic.

Priorities
Promotion
Planning
Production
Participation

Priorities

This is going to sound self-righteous, but if your main priority of hosting a strength and conditioning clinic is to make money; then you are wasting valuable time. I am not saying you can't make money and that you shouldn't try to earn a profit. There are plenty of clinics that make quite bit of money at the end of the day. What I am saying is this: If the main goal of the clinic it to make money, then the attendees will see right through it. People know when an event is purposefully undervalued when expenses are cut and fees are increased. People in this business are very leery of self-promoters or of someone trying to make a quick buck without putting in the work. Usually because they've been around long enough to see others who have done it, or unfortunately, they are those kind of people themselves.

The intention of the clinic has to be to provide opportunities for coaches to learn and network.

Promotion

There is this thing called Social Media, and if you haven't heard, there are millions of people who stare at their electronic devices for hours oblivious to the world around them every day. You will help your cause by you event showing up on their phone, iPod, or tablet when they scroll for the entirety of their free-time. In all seriousness, you need to promote the event on Social Media and get your hard work on the minds of potential attendees and sponsors. There are some Dos and Don't when it comes to social media.

The Dos of Social Media Promotion

Create a unique hashtag for the event. This should be simple with a year or number attached. For example: #SPTS15 or PLExp3. The acronym or word should be consistent year to year with only the year or number changing.
Convince your presenters and attendees to share and retweet your posts on all media sources. This shows they are excited about being a part of the event and you reach a much wider audience.
Encourage your attendees to live-tweet, post on Instagram, or post on Facebook while the event is happening. More on this later.

The Don'ts of Social Media Promotion

Do not tag everyone you know hoping it will show up on their news feed. This is annoying to those people and most have a filter where they have to approve whether it appears on their wall anyway. If you are using Instagram, then tagging someone does nothing but notify them.
Don't be afraid to contact people via e-mail. This may seem like a waste of time, but if you have an easily accessible contact list, this may get a few more attendees and will seem for professional and personal at the same time.
Don't overdue the social media posts. When you do post promotional information, make sure each one is a little different in terms of focus and photos. Make sure you have some square logos to format on Instagram. A "Speaker Spotlight" highlighting your best asset (your presenters) are a great way to promote the event and your speakers.

Planning

The more work you do on the front end, the less stress you will experience on the back end. Diligently reviewing every detail of the event with a timeline, contacts, and alternative plans, will make the event run smoother and allow you to enjoy the day.

Here are a few bullet-points to consider. Some of these points, I learned the hard way. Here is a step-by-step method of getting things rolling. You basically need to think of four things: Date, Speakers, Venue, and Pricing. Everything will fall into place.

The Date

There are certain times of the year to stay away from. Honestly, your date should be based on your speaker's availability. If you have predominately college coaches speaking, then there are definite zones of opportunities. With Professional coaches, the window is even smaller. For example the Sports Performance Training Summit in 2015 was placed the weekend between the NFL combine and the Arnold. We were stuck with that date.

Another method that will help is looking at all of the other clinics and events for certain times of years. You will need to look at everything from other clinics, to conference championships, HS state playoffs, final exam weeks, etc.

Overall, here is a month by month overview which may vary state by state. This is my opinion and I am sure there may be some discrepancies from other coaches based on their experience.

January: Doubtful - The NSCA Coaches Conference, AFCA Convention, and returning to school all make this a tough month.
February: Possible - The NFL Combine may be an issue in terms of speakers.
March: Possible - In Columbus, you will need to avoid the Arnold. This may also be tricky as Winter and Spring Sports are overlapping and some on Spring Break.
April: Probable - This is usually a good month for Fall and Winter Sport coaches and generally slower for private sector coaches.
May: Probable - You definitely want to avoid conflict with the CSCCa Conference at the beginning of the month and memorial day weekend.
June-July: Possible - These months are always hit or miss. Vacations, camps, and 10 month contracts are fairly normal and don't allow for much stability. The NSCA National Conference and 4th of July weekend also hampers July.
August: Doubtful - 3 Words. Pre-Season Training Camps. Avoid this month.
September-November: Possible - It's just a basic fact that a great deal of your attendees will be associated with Football which will be in-season. Unless you have a very specialized clinic, the Fall may be tricky. If you can make it Spring Sport specific or the weekend before Thanksgiving, you may be ok.

Regardless of what your pre-conceived notion of what a good weekend to host would be, the number-one determining factor will be speaker availability.

Try to stick to a one-day event. Having a multi-day event may price-out some of your non-local attendees when forcing them to stay overnight. In addition, most coaches do not have the luxury of traveling and staying multiple days at any clinic. Stick with one day for the official event and possibly expand with a pre-clinic open house or training session at your facility along with a dinner or social afterwards.

Speakers

No matter what anyone tells you about your clinic, the presenters are the most important aspect of the event by far. A great speaker line-up will bring attendees above anything else. There are a few points on my personal checklist when it comes to speakers at an event. I have been extremely lucky to have such high quality presenters at events I helped coordinate.

Don't bring on too many speakers. I messed this up, big-time. I am not sure why I felt more speakers would be a good idea, but it always devalued the clinic when I did. When there are too many speakers, a few things happen.

You limit the about of educational impact each presenter has by shortening their lecture times.
You limit the amount of networking and "real learning" that happens in the hallways at these events when the sessions run together.
You almost always run over in terms of time which makes the clinic, your speakers, and yourself look unprofessional.

Utilize the Speaker's Time. This multiplies your resources and drastically improves the values of the clinic. If you have a big-time speaker coming in, give them as much time as you can. In addition, get them to do an added "hands-on" session or be part of a round-table at the end of the clinic or during lunch. If you are running an NSCA State Clinic or an event through your university, more presentation time will dictate a high speaker honorarium.

Venue

The venue is the third most important factor of the clinic. A great venue can accentuate all of the positive attributes of the event. Unfortunately, a poor venue can negate all the hard work you've done. Here's a quick list to think about.

The room you are using should be square or wider than long. Long, skinny rooms pulls your audience away from the speaker. You are not watching a movie. Your audience doesn't need a straight-ahead view of the presenter. This also makes it awkward for attendees coming in late or stepping out of the talk.

Don't use tables. Again, this just takes up more space than you need. Your attendees aren't coming in to take a Mid-Term exam. Chairs are fine for any strength clinic.

Make sure your sound is on point. Most small clinics may not even need a microphone for your speakers, specifically if they are strength coaches. Strength coaches enthusiastically speak in front of loud groups on the daily (although often like cartoon characters for the YouTube cameras). Your worst enemy without using a microphone is going to be an echo depending on the room size.

If you are going to use a microphone, make sure you have a lapel (lavalier) microphone so speakers can "talk with their hands." These are not cheap but probably worth the investment if you are holding yearly clinics. If you are associated with a university, they should not be a problem to attain.

Pricing

This takes time to perfect as a clinic director and there is never an exact right answer. The dilemma is making sure you don't undervalue the event while not out-pricing your possible audience. A lot will be determined by who the speakers are. As previously mentioned, your speakers are your draw, and only experience will help you understand what your speaker line-up should warrant.

A very easy way to figure out a basic registration fee is to simply charge by CEU awarded (even if you are not giving out CEUs) which basically means per hour. A simple guideline the NSCA uses is $10 per CEU awarded. So a clinic that starts at 9am and end at 4pm with an hour lunch would be a 6 hour clinic. In this case, $60 for registration is fair. You can increase this based on the quality of speakers or even by having a round-table during lunch.

Production

The day of the event is where poor planning got me into scramble mode very quickly. Whenever it India rides for the event, they should have a great impression of you, organization, and event itself from the moment they arrive until the moment they leave. Here are some really quick points to think about during the time between registration and the start of the clinic.

Get sponsors to help with costs and even become vendors
Get T-shirts made. This will help with promotion for next year and add to the total experience of the clinic.
Provide somewhere on the registration form for attendees to list occupation and the college, high school, gym, or company they are associated with. Tallying these results will help your speakers and vendors.
Send an e-mail with PDF versions of the presentations to all attendees along with directions, campus map, parking info, etc. The easiest way to do this is have your presenters send their PPTs to you (or use DropBox, OneDrive, etc.). Then you convert those into a PDF so you can send the presentation (for phones or tablets) and handout (so attendees can print) formats.
Create an event on Facebook to help keep communication up to date along wit providing attendees a platform to ask questions.
Make name tags. They may be time consuming (not if you make them as the registrations are sent in) for the attendees. Bring extra to the venue and preferably have a way to print more instead of hand-writing the walk-in attendees.
Ensure you have a Mac adapter for the laptops. Some presenters will want to use their own and hook them directly into the projector.
Get a PPT remote. Again, this is a great investment for future clinics.
Bring extra batteries for microphones and make sure you have all the power cords you need.

Participation

Encourage your staff, presenters, and audience to include your unique hashtag with any social media correspondence during the event. The collection of tweets, posts, and short videos will enable a more thorough recap of the day and serve as your best promotional material for next year. There is two ways this happen.

Short Term: Individuals that could not make the clinic or did not hear about it will get a more prominent picture of the event and plant a seed for next year.

Long Term: The clinic director can use the testimonials, photos, and video clips to help promote the following year's clinic as the time approaches.

Secondly, hands-on presentations are what get a lot of positive feedback from attendees. Coaches want to either do the drills, or watch someone do the drills live. Hands-on presentations normally take less set-up, less technology, and work well in conjunction with a corresponding lecture.

Lastly, get attendee feedback for the clinic and the speakers. Coaches are normally not shy about giving their opinions and most are constructively tactful when they give it. Either provide written evaluation forms at the event or send out a quick survey the day of or after the event while the experience is still fresh.

Conclusions and Qualifications

At the end of the day, clinic directors always need to ask themselves this question. "Why am I doing this?" Answering honestly why someone would take the time and go through the trouble of organizing the clinic should validate the time spent. Professional development through education and networking is the backbone of sports performance. Coaches are driven individuals who will sacrifice their time and money just to learn one thing at a clinic that will help their athletes.

I am no expert and I hope to get some added suggestions as this list is anything but exhaustive. I have made many mistakes but have been blessed to have the opportunity to learn throughout the years. Here is a comprehensive list of those experiences.

Professional Speaking

Upcoming Events:

2016 Summit for Transformative Learning - St. Louis, MO. "Practical Applications in Principle Based Coaching and Strength Training in the Large Team Setting"

2016 Showtime Strength & Performance Sports Performance Clinic - Newark, OH. "Optimizing Resources for Maximal Performance"

Past Events:

2015 Robert Morris University Strength & Speed Seminar – Moon Township, PA
“Training Considerations for Large Team Settings”

2015 NSCA Great Lakes Regional Conference – Muncie, IN
“What is Really Wrong with Strength & Conditioning and How to Fix It”

2015 NSCA Coaches Conference – Orlando, FL
“A Practical Approach to Training Rotational Power in a Team Setting”

2014 NSCA Coaches Conference – Louisville, KY
“Training Power Exercises in a Team Setting”

2014 Robert Morris University Strength & Speed Seminar – Moon Township, PA
“Adapting Conjugated Periodization for the Athletic Setting”

2014 The Ohio State University Graduate Student Exercise Science Colloquium – Columbus, OH
“Practical Application of Linear & Non-Linear Periodization Models in a Team Setting”

2014 Denison University Physical Education Guest Lecturer – Granville, OH
“Strength Training: Periodization, Programming, Progressions, & Purpose”

2014 CfMRF: NSW Resilience Program – Pearl City/ Ko Olina, HI
“High Performance Modification and Injury Reduction for the Tactical Ops Population”
“Using Band, Bodyweight, and Manual Resistance Exercise in Close Quarters”
“General Activity and Motivation for School-Aged Children”

2014 NSCA Northern Florida State Clinic – Niceville, FL
“Turning Obstacles into Opportunities”

2014 NSCA Coaches Conference – Indianapolis, IN
“The Strength Coaches Guide to Effective Communication Strategies with Sport Coaches”

2013 Third Thursday Sports Performance Seminar Series– Granville, OH
Four Part Monthly Series discussing “Speed, Power, Strength, & Conditioning”

2013 NSCA Coaches Conference – Nashville, TN
“The Strength & Conditioning Internship: A Guide for Creating and Finding a Great Program”

2011 NSCA National Conference – Las Vegas, NV
“Overcoming Obstacles in Strength & Conditioning at the Division III Level”

2011 Central Ohio Strength & Conditioning Coaches Clinic – Granville, OH
“Mentoring Young Coaches through a Strength & Conditioning Curriculum”
“The Anatomy of a Strength Training Session: Pre & Post Work-Out”

2010 Central Ohio Strength & Conditioning Coaches Clinic – Granville, OH
“The Denison University Internship Program”

2009-2010 Otterbein College Strength & Conditioning Class Guest Lecturer – Westerville, OH
“Injury Prevention for Athletes through Proper Teaching Progressions”

2009 Central Ohio Strength & Conditioning Coaches Clinic – Granville, OH
“Screening, Evaluating & Testing Athletes – Transitioning from Subjective to Objective”

2008-2009 Denison University Strength & Conditioning Free Seminar – Granville, OH
“Injury Prevention for the Female Athlete”

2008 Otterbein College Strength & Conditioning Class Guest Lecturer – Westerville, OH
“Injury Prevention for Athletes through Proper Teaching Progressions”

2008 Central Ohio Strength & Conditioning Coaches Clinic – Granville, OH
“Program Design Templates for Off-Season Training - Turning Logistical Obstacles into Opportunities”

2008 Northeast Ohio Strength Clinic – Strongsville, OH
“Addressing Technique Discrepancies and Formulating Corrective Strategies for the Squat”

2007 Otterbein College Strength & Conditioning Class Guest Lecturer – Westerville, OH
“Teaching Progressions for the Squat and Olympic Lifts”

2007 Central Ohio Strength & Conditioning Coaches Clinic – Granville, OH
“Multidimensional Speed Training & Energy System Development”
“Incorporating Affordable Strongman Implements & Exercises into your Program”

2007 NSCA Ohio State Strength & Conditioning Clinic – Columbus, OH
“Addressing Technique Deficiencies and Using Accommodating Resistance for the Squat”

2006 Blue Ridge Bone & Joint Coaches Clinic – Asheville, NC
“Teaching Progressions for the Squat & Squat Variations”
“Incorporating Accommodating Resistance for the Squat into a Strength & Conditioning Program”

2005 Army Wrestling Fall Clinic – West Point, NY
“The Army Wrestling Strength & Conditioning Program”

2005 Blue Ridge Bone & Joint Coaches Clinic – Asheville, NC
“Teaching Progressions for the Power Clean”
“Designing a Strength & Conditioning Program for the High School Athlete”

2005 Otterbein College Strength & Conditioning Class Guest Lecturer – Westerville, OH
“Olympic Lifting Technique”

2002 Allegheny College Strength & Speed Clinic - Meadville, PA

Clinic Director

Elitefts Sports Performance Training Summit

Columbus, OH 2015
- Speakers: Dave Tate, Buddy Morris, Mike Robertson, Joe Kenn, Joe DeFranco, and Chip Morton

Elitefts Learn to Train Seminar

Hilliard/ London, OH 2013
Hilliard/ London, OH 2014
Columbus/ London, OH 2014

NSCA Ohio State Clinic

Columbus, OH 2013
- Speakers: Dan John, Cal Dietz, Dr. Bryan Mann, Meg Stone, Scott Caulfield, Anthony Donskov, JL Holdsworth, The OSU Olympic Sports Strength Staff