Strength & Conditioning: Philosophy

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Core Values

Excellence: We strive to be leaders in the industry, providing exemplary service to our student-athletes, along with being at the forefront in current advances in the strength and conditioning field.

Community: All twenty-one teams share a single facility. Each of these teams has one of three strength and conditioning coaches dedicated specifically to them. The combination of having a single facility and a smaller staff allows teams to not only train at the same time, but our staff is given the amazing opportunity to get to know a large number of the student-athlete populace.

Respect: Our student-athlete centric environment allows everyone the same opportunity to develop over their career regardless of race, gender, or socio-economic status.

Personal Development: Through a strategic implementation of both education and physiological stressors, our athletes are not only given the opportunity to progress physically over four to five years, but mentally as well.

Responsible Stewardship: As a staff we strongly believe it’s not what equipment or gear you possess, but how you apply it when creating a safe environment to train for our most valued resource, the student-athletes.

Integrity: Our methods are not gimmicky or overly-progressive for the sake of novelty. Each athlete’s movement patterns are assessed and deficiencies are identified and corrected using simple, time-tested strategies before proceeding to more advanced training protocols.

Objectives

The strength and conditioning department is focused on developing the complete student-athlete using proven scientific methods to give each athlete the best training possible.

Our staff is constantly evolving with the ever changing demands of collegiate athletics to help ensure the student-athletes stay healthy and perform at their peak potential.

Our staff works closely with the Sports Medicine Department to enhance injury prevention and return to play exercise.

Our facility is the epicenter for the student-athlete’s physical development. It provides them the opportunity to train in a space dedicated to their success and with equipment in place for the purpose of improving their athletic performance.

Recommended Readings

	Advances in Functional Training by Michael Boyle In the seven years since the publication of his first book, Functional Training for Sports, new understanding of functional anatomy created a shift in strength coaching. With this new material, Coach Boyle presents the continued evolution of functional training as seen be a leader in the strength and conditioning field.
	Anatomy Trains by Thomas Myers Understanding the role of facscia in healthy movement and postural distortion is of vital importance to all somatic practitioners. Anatomy Trains: Myofascial Meridians for Manual and Movement Therapists presents a ‘whole systems’ view of myofascial / locomotor anatomy, especially the body-wide connections among the muscles within the fascial net. This accessible book details how patterns of strain communicate through the myofascial ‘ webbing’, contributing to both movement stability and postural compensation.
	Art of War by Sun Tzu Twenty-five hundred years ago, Sun Tzu wrote this classic book of military strategy based on Chinese warfare and military thought. Since that time, all levels of military haves used the teaching on Sun Tzu to warfare and civilizations have adapted these teachings for use in politics, business and everyday life. Art of War is a book which should be used to gain advantage of opponents in the boardroom and battlefield alike.
	Core Performance by Mark Verstegen At your core, there’s an incredible athlete. Lean, yet powerful. Strong, but still flexible. World-class trainer Mark Verstegen shows you how to use your core to transform your body and your life, turn back the clock, speed up your metabolism, trim your waistline, build muscle, and gain boundless energy. More than a workout routine, Verstegen’s 12-week, comprehensive program reveals the athlete that’s always been inside you.
	Diagnosis and Treatment of Movement Impairment Syndromes by Shirley Sahrmann Authored by an acknowledged expert on muscle and movement imbalances, this well-illustrated book presents a classification system of mechanical pain syndrome that is designed to direct the exercise prescription and the correction of faulty movement patterns. The diagnostic categories, associated muscle and movement imbalances, recommendations for treatment, examination, exercise principles, specific corrective exercises, and modification of functional activities for case management are described in detail. This book is designed to give practitioners an organized and structured method of analyzing the mechanical cause of movement impairment syndrome, the contributing factors, and a strategy for management.
	Low Back Disorders by Stuart McGill Internationally recognized low back specialist Stuart McGill presents original research to quantify the forces that specific movements and exercises impose on the low back, dispels myths regarding spine stabilization exercises, and suggests prevention approaches and strategies to offset injuries and restore function.
	Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath Whether you’re a CEO or full-time mom, you’ve got ideas that you need to communicate: a new product coming to market, a strategy you want to sell your boss, values you are trying to instill in your children. But it’s hard – fiendishly so – to transform the way people think and act.
	Mind Gym by Gary Mack and David Casstevens In Mind Gym, noted sports psychology consultant Gary Mack explains how your mind influences your performance on the field or on the court as much as your physical skill does, if not more so. Through forty accessible lessons and inspirational anecdotes from prominent athletes—many of whom he has worked with—you will learn the same techniques and exercises Mack uses to help elite athletes build mental “muscle.” Mind Gym will give you the “head edge” over the competition.
	Movement by Gray Cook Movement is a vivid discovery, a fundamental and explicit teaching in which the return to basics takes on a whole new meaning. In it, author Gray Cook crosses the lines between rehabilitation, conditioning and fitness, providing a clear model and a common language under which fitness and re-habilitation professionals can work together.
	Science and Practice of Strength Training Together the authors have trained more than 1,000 elite athletes, including Olympic, world, continental, and national champions and record holders. The concepts they divulge are influenced by both Eastern European and North American perspectives. The authors integrate those concepts in solid principles, practical insights, coaching experiences, and directions based on scientific findings. This edition is much more practical than its predecessor; to this end, it provides the practitioner with the understanding to craft strength training programs based on individuals’ needs.
	Stretch to Win by Ann and Chris Frederick Leave the old static stretches, muscle tightness, and movement restrictions behin. Stretch to Win presents a complete flexibility training system—a proven winner for today’s athlete. This is the new way to both loosen up and perform your best.
	Super Training by Yuri Verhoshansky and Mel Siff * The shock method* The development of adaptation process during the long term sport activity* The “compensatory adaptation”* Current Adaptive Reserve of the human organism* The strategy to manage the adaptation in the training process* The specificity of protein synthesis in the adaptation process* The structural reconstructions during the adaptation process and the phenomenon of Supercompensation* Heterochronism of adaptive reconstructions* The function efficiency in a high - adapted organism* The optimal regime of adaptation* The phenomenon of immune defense decrease* The general schema of adaptation process during the sport activity* The practical aspects of the Adaptation Theory* The future developments of the use of Adaptation Theory in sport * Strength and the muscular system* Philosophy of physical training* The muscle complex* Adaptation and the training effect* Sport specific strength training* Factors influencing strength production* The means of special strength training* The methods of special strength training* Organization of training* Strength training methods* Designing sports specific strength programs* Restoration and stress management* Combination of resistance methods* The use of testing* Overtraining* PNF as a training system* Models for structuring the annual training* Preparedness and the training load* Periodization as a form of organization
	Talent is Overrated by Geoff Colvin Why are certain people so incredibly great at what they do? Happily, the real source of great performance is no longer a mystery. Bringing together extensive scientific research, bestselling author Geoff Colvin shows where we go wrong and what actually makes world-class performers so remarkable. It isn’t specific, innate talents, nor is it plain old hard work. It’s a very specific type of work that anyone can do—but most people don’t.
	The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John C. Maxwell What would happen if a top expert with more than thirty years of leadership experience were willing to distill everything he had learned about leadership into a handful of life-changing principles just for you? It would change your life. John C. Maxwell has done exactly that in The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. He has combined insights learned from his thirty-plus years of leadership successes and mistakes with observations from the worlds of business, politics, sports, religion, and military conflict. The result is a revealing study of leadership delivered as only a communicator like Maxwell can.
	Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers by Robert Sapolsky Robert Sapolsky’s acclaimed Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers combines cutting-edge research with a healthy dose of good humor and practical advice to explain how prolonged stress causes or intensifies a range of physical and mental afflictions, including depression, ulcers, colitis, heart disease, and more. When we worry or experience stress, our body turns on the same physiological responses that an animal’s body does, but we usually do not turn off the stress-response in the same way—through fighting, fleeing, or other quick actions. Over time, this chronic activation of the stress-response can make us literally sick.