insights LIBRARY

I think it's safe to say strength coaches love the weight room. It's where we coach, where we develop physical qualities and build relationships. It's also where we can control exercise selection, loading, volume and progression. It's easy to get excited when numbers go up. A bigger squat, a higher jump, a faster sprint, those improvements matter. But none of them are the reasons we get to coach our athletes. The baseball player is here to play baseball. The volleyball p

Strength and conditioning can be a busy profession. Early mornings, coordinating with sports medicine, attending practice, staff meetings, programming for your teams, testing analysis, monitoring, emails to read and send, pre-game prep, post-game work, travel etc… the list can seem endless. Somewhere between all of that, you’re supposed to find the time to actually coach. Days will be long and that’s part of working in athletics. We all know this, but I’ve learned there is

Early in my career, I thought being a good coach meant always having the answer. As a graduate assistant, I put a lot of pressure on myself to be perfect. Don't mess up. Don't miss any details. Know the answer before someone asks. Think three steps ahead. If something went wrong, I felt like I should have seen it coming, or that if I were better, nothing would’ve happened. I took it all very personally. Don’t get me wrong, some of that pressure was useful. It taught me to

You can write a great program. The exercises fit together flawlessly, the progressions make sense, the volume and intensity progress perfectly, and most of all, it fits like a puzzle piece right into the sport calendar. You sit back and appreciate the masterpiece, and then your athletes walk in the door. One couldn’t fall asleep last night, and they are exhausted; one is frustrated over their playing time, one is a freshman who is terrified of messing something up, and one i

Networking is a buzzword in strength and conditioning. You run through the checklist of networking: Go to conferences. Meet people. Shake hands. Exchange contact information. And yes, meeting people matters. But simply knowing someone doesn't make them part of your network. The more important question is: How do they know you? A CONTACT ISN'T ALWAYS A CONNECTION You can have someone's phone number. You could’ve met them at a conference. You might follow each other on social

Every coach wants buy-in. We want athletes committed to the program, sport coaches aligned with the plan and administrators to support our decisions. The problem is that buy-in isn’t something you can demand. Your title and/or your credentials don’t create it. And it doesn't come from writing the “perfect program.” Buy-in must be earned. THE COMMON MISTAKE One of the biggest mistakes coaches make is trying to convince people they are right. They explain the science. Defe

Great coaches matter, and they definitely make a difference. Their knowledge matters. Their relationships matter. Their leadership matters. People are the driving force behind every successful performance environment. But there is a reality that every environment eventually faces: People leave. Coaches take new jobs. Administrators change. Athletes graduate. Staff responsibilities shift. And when the success of a program lives entirely inside one person’s head, progress leav

One of the most interesting things about coaching is that knowledge often changes how we communicate. Early in our careers, we simplify because we have to. We don’t know enough to make things complicated. Then something happens. We learn more. We attend clinics. We earn certifications. We read research. We gain experience. And suddenly, everything becomes more complex. Exercise selection becomes more detailed. Programming becomes more advanced. Terminology becomes more te

Every team has goals. Winning. Consistency. Discipline. Mental toughness. Accountability. The goals are usually clear. The real question is: “Do your actions match your goals?” Because culture and standards are not built through intention alone. They are built through repeated behavior. And over time, repeated behavior becomes expectation. Expectation becomes the standard, and the standard ultimately shapes the culture of the environment. THE REALITY Every environment has sta

Most teams talk about culture as if it were motivation. Energy. Intensity. Speeches before competition. Social media graphics with quotes about toughness and discipline. Those things may create emotion in the moment, but emotion doesn’t build culture. And personally, I think that’s all eyewash. Culture is built long before any of that. It is built daily in the details. THE MISCONCEPTION One of the biggest misconceptions in performance environments is that culture is somethin

The perception is that most strength and conditioning coaches only focus on the athletes in front of them. The lift. The session. The result. And rightly so, but over time, your role expands. Your impact isn’t just measured by the athletes you train. It’s measured by the people you develop. THE SHIFT At some point, coaching stops being only about the athletes. It starts to include: o Interns o Assistants o Mentees o Young coaches entering the field The environment yo

Many coaches invest heavily in their development early in their careers. Almost every coach has earned a master's degree, holds certifications, and has completed internships. After those initial educational boxes are checked, something shifts. Learning slows down. Continuing education turns into a requirement instead of a priority. Attend a clinic. Get the CEUs. Move on. But development doesn’t stop once you land a job. If anything, that’s when it should accelerate. THE REA

Consistency is one of the most valued qualities in training. Same lifts. Same structure. Same schedule. This creates clarity, confidence, and buy-in, as it should. Building consistency isn’t the problem; the question is: “Are we applying the plan or just repeating it?” The goal isn’t to run the same session over and over. It’s to apply the program within the context of the day and week. Every session lives inside another environment. o Travel o Sleep o Game load o R

Strength and conditioning coaches love refining their programs. Sets. Reps. Exercise selection. Periodization models. But here is the truth: If you can’t clearly explain why you programmed something, you probably shouldn't ask your athletes to do it. Communication isn’t separate from coaching; it’s part of it. THE “WHY” IS PART OF THE PROGRAM Every decision you make has ripple effects: o Why is volume lower this week? o Why are we using a CNS primer instead of a full lift

In collegiate athletics, we rarely have a workload problem; we have a structure problem. Athletes are often exposed to stress that isn’t organized. o Practice o Life o Travel o Academics o Competition Then we wonder why soft tissue injuries pop up week after week. Load management isn’t about doing less; it’s about organizing stress intentionally. THE REAL QUESTION Every week, whether we acknowledge it or not, we choose one of two approaches: 1. Manage load proa

Most teams have a warm-up. It’s written down. It’s familiar. It’s consistent. Consistency isn’t the problem; the real question is: “Are we building something or going through the motions?” The warm-up is one of the few exposures athletes get almost every single day. That makes it powerful, and when structured intentionally, it becomes more than preparation; it becomes development. RETHINK THE WARM-UP Instead of treating the warm-up as mindless movement before the “real work,”

Most young strength and conditioning coaches move forward with momentum. Take the classes. Pass the certifications. Apply for internships. Hope it leads somewhere. There is nothing wrong with that path. But it’s reactive. Coaches who build intentional careers do something different: they reverse engineer. They start with the end goal and work backward. Here is how that looks in strength and conditioning. 1. DEFINE THE END FIRST Before worrying about certifications or int