The Power Behind The Thrown

They turn today\'s 98-pound weaklings into tomorrow\'s NFL stars. But who\'s ever heard of them? No one.
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They're the Rodney Dangerfields of the football world. They're overworked, underpaid, overlooked and under-appreciated. If they do their jobs well and their teams win, they get little, if any, glory. But, if they put a squad on the field that can't go the distance and collapses in the fourth quarter, there's hell to pay.

In short, with rare exception, strength and conditioning coaches just don't get no respect.

"The unofficial rule when dealing with the football staff is that no strength coach is as smart as the dumbest assistant football coach," said one strength and conditioning coach who volunteered his profession's well-known axiom and then asked that his name not be attached to it.

In an effort to find out more about the profession that didn't exist 30 years ago and has undergone rapid changes in the last decade, American Football Monthly sent surveys to more than 100 college strength and conditioning coaches throughout the country.

The 40 who responded helped paint a picture of the men and women who spend 12 to 14 hours a day helping athletes become stronger, faster, more physically fit.

What the surveyed showed is that, in general, this is a well-educated group. More than half hold master's degrees and two of the respondents have doctorate degreees - one in education administration and another in kinesiology.

Further, it is clear that strength training is a profession, not just something assistant coaches gravitate to after spending time on the gridiron. More than half reported that they have never been a football coach but rather have spent their entire careers as strength and conditioning experts. And even those who began their careers as coaches have left that pursuit for good. Most have spent years in the weight room. The average length of experience among respondents was 9.1 years. Five have been strength and conditioning coaches for more than 15 years.

That's because the profession, originally the province of hobbyists who simply believed that lifting weights helped their performance, has been taken over by researchers and scientists. To be a strengthen and conditioning coach today requires lots of training and know-how. Unlike their hobbyist predecessors, strength and conditioning coaches don't just think something works, they know it and understand the physiology behind it.

"It is now a science and a profession," says Michael Doscher, strength and conditioning coach at Valdosta State University. "You are taking athletes to new levels that keep them healthy, less prone to injury, faster and stronger than ever before."

Rod Cole, strengthen and conditioning coach at Kansas State University, agrees. "Strengthen and conditioning has developed a long ways from its beginning of just 'lifting weights to get stronger.' The focus is now on developing the total athlete - not just size, strength and speed, but balance, coordination, explosiveness, etc."

And the responsibilities don't end there.

"Instead of just getting athletes stronger, time must be spent improving flexibility, movement ability, athleticism, agility and injury prevention ," says John Krasinski, strength and conditioning coach at Northern Arizona University. "All this while counseling athletes on good nutrition, rest and recovery, time management and even study habits."

Further, as the role of the strength and conditioning coach has grown to include academics as well as athleticism, the type of training they do has changed dramatically.

Paul Hopman, of Mayville State University, explains the rapid changes this way: "It wasn't that long ago when skilled position players were told not to lift because it would decrease their speed. We now know that, if done properly, just the opposite is true."

In fact, building speed is now one of the top priorities of strength and conditioning coaches. While most coaches design programs that build both speed and strength, some coaches say speed is key.

Dennis Kline, University of Wisconsin at LaCrosse, doesn't mince words when asked whether speed or strength is more important. "Speed!" he writes. "It doesn't matter how strong you are if your opponent is five yards ahead of you. "

Mike Schartz, Washburn University, is also a speed demon. "Either you have it or you're chasing it," he says.

Still others are equally convinced that strength is still where it's at.

"Strength is the base from which all things grow," says Tom Moffit, strength and conditioning coach at Louisiana State University.

Paul Mills, at Huron University, expresses a similar view. "Speed will develop as you work on strength."

While other coaches vigorously disagree, arguing that speed, like strength, must be developed, such disagreements only underscore the changes that have swept the profession that once involved telling kids to lift as much weight as they could until they couldn't do it any longer.

And there are many things about which all coaches agree. One, that almost goes without saying, is that strength training has become a year-round pursuit.

"The days of a nine-month layoff are over," says Len Rich, co-defensive coordinator and conditioning coach at Westminster College. "Off-season weight training and conditioning is now an essential part of all good football programs

Further, coaches say, there has been a gradual agreement that more is sometimes less.

"When I first started weight training we did 5-6 sets per exercise," says Joe Demaminada II of Ohio Northern University. "Through the years I've learned that all we need are 1-2 sets per exercise done at the highest level of intensity possible and done to momentary muscular failure. Reaching failure and overloading the muscle is key to our program."

" It is more about quality than quantity," agrees Rob Livingstone, of Jacksonville State University.

Further, the profession has become far more precise. Exercises have become more sport specific. Football players need explosive strength so conditioning coaches build workout programs to help them get it. Other athletes, such as soccer players, need endurance and their programs are designed accordingly. There's no one-size-fits-all anymore. Different athletes need different things and conditioning programs now design those differences.

In addition, conditioning coaches can now monitor an athlete's progress (or lack of it) far more accurately. Computers test and measure athletes with a precision that was impossible even 10 years ago.

Still, as much as the profession has changed, misconceptions still abound, the coaches says.

For instance, while strength coaches realize that an athlete doesn't have to come out of the weight room exhausted, that message hasn't reached head coaches.

"I think the most common misconception I see sport coaches make is to think that 'more is better,' says Cole, of Kansas State. "We do as much as anyone in the country, but there have to be times to cycle heavy and light, hard and easy, so that you don't run athletes into the ground. Anyone can write a killer workout to wear people out, but it's an art to design programs to get continued improvement."

Coaches also are impatient. They want to see results now.

"Development occurs over the course of time and not overnight like some coaches perceive," says Pete Yurish, of Shepherd College. "Also, an athlete cannot gain nor lose weight at a moment's notice. It is frustrating to explain that getting stronger, faster, losing weight or gaining weight takes time to do in the right manner. I also get upset when a coach tells an athlete to weigh a certain amount without considering a gain or considerable loss in body fat, strength, speed and quickness."

Likewise, strength coaches says, head coaches sometimes put too much emphasis on what an athlete does in the weight room.

"The biggest misconception is that a strong player will make a good football player and that player that doesn't have the best numbers in the weight room did not work hard," says Ohio Northern's Demaminada. "I can't make them better football players in the weight room. I can only make them stronger and put them in a situation to be a better football player.

"They will only become a better football player by practicing football. I don't care about what their numbers are," he says. "As long as they are working hard and improving that is all I care about. Some football coaches place too much emphasis on how much a player can bench or clean. That bench or clean is not what makes them a good football player."

Most strength and conditioning coaches say the attitudes of head coaches are changing. "Head coaches are now starting to realize that the head strength and conditioning coach is the most vital part of their program, for we are the front line of injury prevention and improving athletic performance for the athlete and the team," says Doscher, of Valdosta State.

Still, while boning up on plays and drills, head coaches should also learn about the advantages of having a well-conditioned athlete.

"The role of diet, rest, weight training, and conditioning is the game plan of the off-season and needs to be understood to the same degree as the in-season Xs and Os," says Len Rich, co-defensive coordinator and conditioning coach, Westminster College. "The head coach needs to develop his strength and conditioning knowledge just as he develops his knowledge of offense, defense and special teams."

Michael Lucas, strength and conditioning coach at Olivet Nazarene University, says the lack of respect he and his peers receive from head coaches is frustrating.

"I believe most head coaches have the 'roll the ball out' in P.E. class mentality in regards to what strength coaches do," he says. "Many weeks are put into preparing programs for athletes. I do not believe strength & conditioning coaches receive the recognition they deserve. Schemes are great, they help football coaches win games, but someone is putting the power and muscle on these athletes."


Survey says...

Forty strength and conditioning coaches responded to our survey. Here's what we discovered:

Average years spent as strength and conditioning coach: 9.1

Number who have not been a football coach: 16

Number with master's degrees: 21

Number with doctorate degrees: 2

Self-educated: 7

Number who emphasize both strength and speed: 27

Number who believe speed rules: 8

Number who believe strength is king: 5

Top exercises: Power clean - 15

Top exercises: Squat - 14

Other favorite exercises: Snatch, abdominal work, hyper-extensions, Romanian deadlift

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