It’s currently in the process of happening so I won’t mention names or specifics; however, a close associate of mine is on an NSCA board that is working on formalizing a qualification structure for physical preparation coaches at the collegiate level (I’m not sure about NFL).
the legislature will be branching out to athletic departments (AD’s and head sport coaches) and supplying them with the criteria necessary to actually conduct a ‘proper’ interview that will determine the true competency of the applicant.
I was told that within 5 years the US system will be similar to the system in the UK with respect to the emphasis on meaningful/pertinent research and that all coaches, and applicants, must be up to speed with it.
I was told that this will be very good for those of us who ‘know’.
It always comes down to misinformation. I’ve long since made it clear that, in my judgment, incompetency far eclipses competency in this industry.
Whether it’s at the level of the Olympians, collegiate sports, high school sports, and on down to grade school PE, I know that the majority of preparatory training is misinformed and often reckless and damaging to the athletes.
Our monstrously varied and rich talent pool in CONUS allows various athletes and sport teams to achieve high results even in the case of incompetent coaching.
While it’s difficult to exclude our own subjective feelings on what truly characterizes coaching qualification, I feel that there are enough ‘in the know’ individuals who have been influenced by leaders such as Charlie who possess the skill set to not only do an excellent job with their athletes, but also to recognize the phonies. This is irrelevant, however, because it’s the higher ups (AD’s and head sport coaches) who are doing the hiring.
I’m optimistic of the state of affairs experiencing improvement, however.
I, for one, have been fortunate to be presented with interview opportunities with bigger and bigger publications. I’ve had two with Muscle and Fitness (the first one was featured in the on-line version of the mag: Articleand Just yesterday Buddy and I spoke with a senior writer for ‘The Sporting News’ who was doing a piece on Dion.
I ended up have a two hour talk with the writer and at the end of it he stated that, his words, “I’ve never had a discussion like that with a strength coach”.
My associate told me that the US system would be similar to the UK system within 5 years. When I asked what he meant he implied that the research topics, as well as coaches knowledge of those topics, were further advanced in the UK.
I don’t have the details, however, so I can’t intelligently discuss that end of it at this time.
The S&C coach should not have a different objective that any other coach. Their objective is to win games. It does not matter what program they use. How strong their bench is, what their 40 time is, clean, squat, VJ… whatever! It doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of the game. I can list for you several big time college football players that do not have great numbers in the gym or 40 time. Guys like Nic Harris, of OU or Rey Maualuga of USC.
But, the S&C coach did their job and clearly got them ready to play at their fullest. They were both All-Americans. If the Florida Gator S&C wanted their guys to do a HIT program for their workouts, and they win the national championship-- As long as the head coach doesn’t want him fired- then in all reality, he did his job. If you win- there is no argument.
Agreed. But since Barwis and RR decided for the first time I can remember to put their S&C coach front and center with all his bombastic claims, he has made himself a bit of a target fairly or unfairly. Winning cures alot and they have done little winning as of late. Regardless of what his style is, they have lost to OSU and MSU for 2 years in a row. That is damn near unforgivable in Michigan. I also think it is shortsighted to call kid’s pussies for not wanting to be verbally and physically abused. I played the game and can tell you if I ever had a coach get too personal, I would have probably said F**k you and walked off. I got my ass chewed plenty, but it wasn’t daily and it wasn’t some of the very personal attacks these guys have made. Kid’s get recruited by certain coaches and go their because they like the program and the atmosphere. Lloyd and RR are about as different as they come. Some kid’s may not like his style i.e. Boren. Too say a kid is soft because he left your program, went to a better program, starts and beats you twice say’s alot. No pussy in my book, just a good football player who went to a better situation.
Do you think that the field needs a change of direction? I certainly do. Just because someone is a professional or collegiate S&C coach doesn’t make them good at their job. It’s more of a who you know. I like what I do, I wouldn’t want to work for a situation like Michigan even if I had the chance. Too much uncertainty regarding employment. Coaches screw up, get fired and you’re out of a job. Do you think Charlie or Ian King aren’t leaps and bounds smarter than most of these guys? I know what intelligent training is. I know what training is bad as a consequence. Running 50x110 yds with minimal recovery is idiotic at best.(like at CMU). They also did a 1200 rep leg workout. What is the point? Where is that in the annual plan? I think you can have plenty of fit guys doing a hell of a lot less. Correct me if I am wrong, but hasn’t Michigan had a lot of injuries the past few years? I seem to remember like 20-25 guys missing time due to injury. That is a bit of a statistical oddity. Not arguin RB34, I just think the more people support stupidity, the longer it goes on. I agree with post above. Great genetics can trump a lot on the playing field. Our number one job is injury prevention first, performance second. Not much good to the team in the training room no matter how good you are.
RB 34, thanks for being gracious. We may not see eye to eye on all things training, but I respect your opinions. It is good healthy debate. That’s what makes this field so great. Like you said, there is more than one way to get to a common spot. I will follow my path, it works for me. Keep on doing your thing, I like your posts. You are an avid poster who has much to offer.
Guys, I should say all distingushed members of this great site. I think it is safe to say that stupidy has no boundaries.
Please dont misunderstand me I would never call anyone on this site stupid but its safe to say that we all can spot bad training when we see it. :eek:
Rb34, to defend buddy and james, lets see where would someone rather go, south florida or pittsburgh. Im not saying that anythings wrong with pitt cause there tough as they come but come on, sun, girls, beaches, it should be a no brainer.
Ollie I could agree with you more, again its florida :D.
James I really hope you guys come up with that plan like tomorrow! Myself, along with speedcoach and esti are tired of trying to deprogram athletes to reprogram them in the right direction. I think ive done that all summer.
I agree that it’s only a matter of time. I believe there is a movement bubbling under to establish a system of checks and balances or a way of calling people out.
This may be going off on a tangent, but I’ve held the belief that the internet has also played a role in that it’s allowed coaches to create the illusion of being at a much higher level than they really are, all for the purpose of moving product.
Agree with Ollie. There are a lot of people who are “experts” on the internet, yet train absolutely zero people. It’s like a comment Ian King once said in regard to an industry icon who just wrote books. Someone in Toronto Speed seminar with Charlie asked him about this gentleman, and Ian replied " I prefer to talk about people who actually train athletes, not just write about it." Its easy to make yourself sound intelligent (i.e. rambling on about stretch reflexes, proprioception, 3 dimensionally unstable environements, etc). It’s a hell of a lot harder to amke athletes good at what they do. I don’t need to tell people who I train and their lifts to know that I do a good job. I look at the end result of last years recruiting, 9 kids that I worked with at one point recently, got scholarships. Their thanks is all the notoriety I need.
Preach! Oh by the way since 2 stupid dogs (great cartoon by the way) got to everyones beloved mich. Injuries went up 300%, about 42 kids left and went on to other universities, oh yeah there starting, SEE RYAN MALLOT.
In defense of RR, Mallet is a poor fit for spread option offense. He does seem to be the number one rated guy by most NFL scouts coming out next year. Mallet, Locker, and the kid from Stanford are the supposed top 3. I guess we will see soon enough.
