What are the attributes of an effective strength and conditioning coach? I was recently asked this question, and as I stumbled over myself for a few minutes, I thought it would make a great topic for an article. My staff started off the brainstorming with a few ideas, which included championship rings, level, certifications, and lots of jokes about large men with bald heads and facial hair.
During these brainstorming sessions, we decided that our best course of action was to come up with a few simple questions that would elicit a broad range of answers. We presented these questions to professionals from an elite division that I program as well as to a successful high school strength coach and a few guys in the middle.
The three basic questions were:
- What are the biggest challenges that you face on a day to day basis?
- What is the most enjoyable aspect of your job?
- What in your mind makes an effective strength coach?
With that in mind, here are the contributors to this article:
- Jon Sanderson, basketball strength and conditioning coach, Clemson University
- John Hark, director of strength and conditioning for Olympic sports, Marshall University
- Cameron Davidson, head strength and conditioning coach, College of Charleston
- Andrew Kingsley, head strength and conditioning coach, Victory Christian Academy
1) What are the biggest challenges that you face on a day to day basis?
Sanderson: My greatest challenge at Clemson is finding new ways to motivate and challenge our guys. It seems like our guys get bored with doing the same workouts week after week. Sometimes adding a new exercise or changing up the warm up goes a long way.
Hark: Proper pre-season and in-season planning is my greatest challenge at Marshall. In our business, we make our money in the summers. This is because over the summer, the external stressors on our athletes are greatly reduced. Full-time classes are out of session. There are no 3.5-hour practices. The significant others have all gone home for the summer! This is when we make our biggest impact and are truly recognized in the progress that we can make on an individual basis with each of our athletes. The frustrating part begins when these stressors are reintroduced. We go from having our fresh and open-minded athletes four days a week to not knowing if we will lift during the current week! Gains diminish, and you’re left with average to minimal final results. It’s sad, but the “more is better” principle that is reintroduced once school begins slashes the gains we’ve worked so hard to make with our athletes in half.
Performance nutrition is also a vital challenge. Fortunately, I have the capability of giving my athletes as many nutritional bars and shakes as they can stomach, but the meals that are provided for them at the dining halls and the availability of healthy choices in our city are creating epidemic-like nutritional habits! Athletes have no idea what to eat, when to eat, or how much to eat!
Davidson: One of my greatest challenges at the College of Charleston is making sure all teams feel they are treated the same as everyone else. Obviously, there are teams that require more than others, but I don’t want them to feel like they are ever taking a back seat.
Another challenge is making sure my teams are motivated to train every day. Everyone has bad days outside of the weight room. It is my job to make sure they are giving their best effort while getting my best effort, regardless of how the rest of their day is going.
Kingsley: My greatest challenge as Village Christian Academy’s strength coach is working with multi-sport athletes who have no off-season. In some cases, their sports overlap. Educating the parents of young athletes is also an obstacle. Many parents still believe that resistance training has an adverse effect on the growth plates of young athletes. Motivating students to step outside their comfort zone and train at the next level is a challenge that probably occurs at most levels. The challenge of working in a small, private school environment is that the top athletes aren’t necessarily top athletes in relation to their peers in the community.
2) What is the most enjoyable aspect of your job?
This question got almost the same response across the board. Seeing athletes improve is and will continue to be the most enjoyable aspect of our job regardless of level. Whether it is on the playing field or court, in the weight room, or life in general, the gains our athletes make are always a victory. I think this is a direct connection with the amount of time we spend with each athlete or team.
To make the rest of us jealous, Sanderson also chimed in with how much he enjoyed his courtside seat at every ACC basketball venue.
3) What in your mind makes an effective strength coach?
Sanderson: I think it takes a combination of knowledge, hard work, and passion to be effective in strength and conditioning. All of these attributes are important. However, being passionate separates good strength coaches from great strength coaches.
Hark: Be open-minded to new theologies, techniques, and methods. Take something from everyone and everywhere and never stop learning! Motivate, inspire, and care for each and every athlete.
Davidson: There are many things that I think about when it comes to being an effective strength coach. I narrowed it down to my top five.
1) Plan your work, work your plan. Proper planning for each cycle is imperative for athletes to make gains. If there is no plan, you have no way of knowing how the athlete is improving or where they are going. “Shooting from the hip” should me minimized whenever possible.
2) Be a motivator. Each athlete and team is motivated differently. I don’t coach my basketball team the same way that I coach my baseball team. I think it’s very important to tap into what makes each team work for you. I feel that as long as your team is working hard in the weight room and being safe, there is no reason why they can’t like it at the same time and have a little fun. It’s what keeps them coming back for more.
3) Do what works for your weight room and your team. I’d like to use programs that I’ve written from other schools where I’ve coached, but that’s just not possible. I don’t have the same equipment, set-up, or athletes at every place. It’s pretty obvious that we must adapt to the situation, and the more we learn, the more we accommodate and change.
4) No job is too small. No matter what position I’m in, I always want to be the guy who jumps in and helps. I don’t like watching others work while I sit at my desk. If my assistants are cleaning or unloading/loading equipment, I want to grab a rag or a piece of equipment and jump right in there and help out.
5) If you don’t coach it, it doesn’t get done. All athletes are human. If you give them an inch, they’ll eventually try for a foot. This applies to doing everything right whether it is the warm up, proper lifting technique, attitude, or stretching. I’m careful not to over coach, but I like to make sure that things are done and done the right way.
I couldn’t have said it better myself. These contributors all run very successful strength and conditioning programs within the framework of successful athletic departments at thriving academic institutions. I could tell you about the championships that they’ve accumulated or the All-Americans who they’ve trained, but I think we have established that being an effective strength coach comprises much more than that.
Getting not only athletes but sport coaches and the administration to buy into your program provides a great starting point for running a successful strength and conditioning program. If people believe in what you’re doing, half of the battle has been fought and won. This is when the passion takes over, as Jon Sanderson says, and the great ones separate themselves from the good.