I would love to see the sets and reps. That is alot on the cns.
me too…curious…really…
utfootball4-How do you know? That guy actually played at Miami I think.
It’s alot of volume. Anyone know about Swasey? I know the players love him and that he was almost promoted to DB coach.
That’s because he used to be a Defensive Back. He’s worthless. As for college strength coaches, who gives a s#%t! They get exactly what they deserve for allowing themselves to be treated this way for the past 30 years!! That’s why I’ll never work for a college/university, because there’s lots of good ol’ boys who think they know what’s up!! The only strength coach I have ever seen given enough credit is jerry schmidt at oklahoma and I give bob stoops tons of credit as a football coach for acknowledging his contributions!! Why do you think new coaches in the private sector are now calling themselves “performance coaches”, etc., because they’re trying to set themselves apart from a group of people who have allowed themselves to be s#%t on for the past 30 years!! Fool me once shame on me, fool me twice shame on you, fool me three times and call me a strength coach!!
Haha, a little angry, huh? What makes Swasey worthless?
From what I’ve heard about Arizona’s strength program (which was transferred from OU w/ Stoops) it’s not so great either. Talent and coaching that come first. Strength coaches don’t necessarily deserve as much credit as you think when they’re working with freaks.
I don’t think they deserve all the credit, but I think professionally they deserve respect and the fact that they don’t get it is their own fault. Swasey has no real experience as a strength coach except working out. His degree plan was sociology if I remember correctly.
They do deserve respect, but I assume they need to communicate more to get that when head coaches think mile times tell how well a player is conditioned.
What does college degree have to do with anything? Louie Simmons & Co.?
The college degree doesn’t mean a whole lot, but it means something. If swasey was a louie simmons it wouldn’t matter, but louie he’s not!!
Yeah, but why is he worthless? I can understand a HIT coach being considered pretty bad, but what does he do that makes him so bad?
It’s what swasey (and lots of strength coaches together) don’t do. They don’t have the capacity to actually speak intelligently with the head coaches about what is right and wrong about the programs they do, so they are forced to do what the head coaches say and not do what they know is best for their athletes. They use some good concepts and manipulate them so on the surface it looks like a good program, but in reality it just looks fancy (All Show and No Go!). Talking to some of these guys is sometimes like talking to an athletes parents or sport coach, you’d swear they learned what they know from “muscle & fiction” and always believe that more is better. Could you imagine having 2-4 years to work with that caliber of athlete and only seeing minor improvements? There are very few collegiate strength coaches who have really blown me away with their programs, but I have been very impressed with the results that private sector strength coaches have attained in much shorter amounts of time because they were afforded the opportunity to take control of the athletes program and are not forced to do silly things the sport coach thinks would be good. There is a delicate balance between the sport coach and the strength coach, but it’s supposed to be a balance!! Oh and on the college degree thing, it’s really not that big of an issue, I am actually still working on my bachelors!!
Interesting. What about Joe Kenn at ASU? Anyone know what kind of conditioning he have football players do? I have his book and it’s impressive. Think he’d take shit from those massive ego coaches if he had to work with them?
I agree with alot of what was said about strength coaches. There are very good coaches in the private sector (I am seriously considering becoming one of these). But let us not forget that most of the coaches in the private sector work with fewer athletes and they tend to get the more motivated athletes. The athletes who go to a performance coach want to improve. I currently ahve 500+ athletes and not all are determined to improve. That is a major challenge of being a strength coach.
Interesting you mention “the more the better” since OU is supposed to have a ridiculously high volume program.
What programs are you impressed with?
I basically think a good coach has three factors:
- What he’s done with himself
- What he’s done with others (especially transformations, not just working with those already elite)
- How much of a motivator and educator he is
I’m just going to say a few words on the topic as I have no desire to debate the strengths and weaknesses of programs I know little about- BUT
Be careful when dismissing a successful program because they “Get all the talent”. This arguement is used to dismiss everything everyone does by someone who disagrees.
Understand that the strength coach MUST facilitate the program of the head coach- not compete against it.
Often, the head coach runs through more plays than would be considered optimal from a purely physical perspective because of the need to perfect plays or to give the quarterback more passing options by allowing him to perfect timing with more receivers- etc. In this case, the strength coach must adjust his workouts to suit the head coach’s demands rather than running the athletes through everything he wants and then quarrel with the effects later.
I agree. I guess flexibility and communication are additionally important to a college strength coach along with #1-3.
It’s just when you see a specific program, it’s short of shocking that coaches get away with this. I heard of a coach helping force a rep on a hang clean at a D1 program…pretty ridiculous.
Agreed with everyone. I don’t mean to knock good strength coaches and i’m not criticizing the profession, just strength coaches take a lot of crap and I think sometimes it’s their own fault. I understand that strength coaches have to work with higher volumes of athletes and thus lose the individual attention and detail that is sometimes necessary to have some athletes succeed (this is also the reason I will choose to never work for a college/university). Peace.