Nearly all major universities have a strength and conditioning coach as well as a team of assistants. These coaches handle the weight room activities of the sports team and know exactly what lifts and conditioning drills each sport should be doing to maximize the performance of their athletes. These strength and conditioning coaches are experts at putting the athletic base into a student athlete who can then learn the specific skills of their sports from their coaches. We are in great need of someone at this position to further the success of our athletic programs.

Here at EOU, we have only the coaches for each sport who double their duties by trying to help the athletes with their strength and conditioning. Adding just one strength and conditioning coach for our school would allow us to have someone who is an expert to oversee these fields for all the teams, do the sport specific research, develop new programs, and work with teams in the weight room during coaching transitions such as the ones we experienced this year in soccer and volleyball.

The official duties of a strength and conditioning coach are:

• To set up the schedule of strength and conditioning workouts for each sports team.

• Be present and punctual for all workouts with student athletes

• Provide athletes with guidance and proper training techniques for free weights and

other strength training equipment

• Provide expertise in the area of strength training and physical conditioning

as requested by the head coaches in all sports on campus.

• Maintain the athletic weight room and keep records of all equipment in the weight room

• Update the Athletic Director on equipment needs and/or upgrades recommended to

provide athletes the best possible strength training equipment available

• Maintain up-to-date records on the strength program of each team and specific

individual workouts of every student-athlete

(Phillips, 2008)

A head strength and conditioning coach has spent several years as an assistant to be qualified for this position. Also, a bachelor's degree in exercise science or a related field is a must. There are a few strength and conditioning coaching certifications that are acceptable such as the Collegiate Strength and Conditioning Coaches Association(CSCCA) or the National Strength and Conditioning Association(NSCA). Someone who is qualified for this position must be well organized and able to handle large groups of people at one time. Motivation is also a key part of this job as the athletes must be pushed mentally in the weight room to reach their full potential.

Strength and conditioning coaches are experts in the field of performance enhancement and they know exactly how to blend the principles of periodization, specificity, and overload, all without over-training.

Here is a brief summary of those terms and their importance:

Periodization
Periodization is a term used to describe the collapse a strength and conditioning training program into periods, or phases. The idea behind periodization is to constantly present a new training stimulation to the body to force it to repeatedly adjust to this new stimulation.

If a new training stimulus is not presented, the body will set to the training and performance will not continue to improve and will finally go down. On the other hand, if a new type of stimulation is presented too soon, the body won't have had enough time to respond and adjust, and again, adjustment will decrease.

This is the reason you should see programs last only about 4 weeks. Trained athletes can adjust much faster to new programs, and should consider changing programs more frequently. Athletes newer to training can continue to make gains for much longer on the same program. This is the reason you see many people "plateau" in their training. They aren't taking advantage of the principle of periodization.

Periodization is completed by changing the strength and conditioning training intensity and volume during certain phases to continue to place stress on the body that it isn't used to.

Specificity
Specificity refers to strength and conditioning training specifically for a desired outcome. You will train differently to build muscle mass than you would to improve performance. You would train differently if you wanted to run a marathon as opposed to play football. There are different strengths, movements and physiological requirements that need to be more developed in certain activities than others. Everyone has things that that they should be training to improve, whether it's health-related or performance-related (notice I didn't say beach body-related). A good strength and conditioning training program is designed with specificity, taking into circumstance the needs and goals of each person.

Overload
This is the most crucial principle behind any strength and conditioning training program. Overburden can be substituted for the word stimulation or tension in the description of periodization. To create an overburden, the body must be made to do things it is not habitual to. This places a tension, or shock, on the body. If the body is not given an overburden, it will not adjust. If there is no adjustment, you will not get any stronger or any more conditioned than you already are. In short you will not see results. Keep this in mind during your strength and conditioning training. Always promote yourself to improve on your last workout. Always push yourself to get better.

Overtraining
Overtraining is when fatigue or a decrease in performance rises up from more and more training and a miss of proper rest and recovery between workouts. Overtraining is an injury. In most cases, overtraining is got by "too much, too soon", or simply training too often and not allowing the body the proper amount of rest from an intense workout.

Some symptoms of overtraining may or may not include: Increased resting heart rate, increased resting blood pressure, decreased sports performance, slower recovery after exercise, weight loss, decreased appetite, decreased desire to exercise, increased choler and depression, and increased incidence of injury.

(Improve, 2009)

Another upside to this position is the cost is relatively low at a smaller university such as ours. This position would be perfect for a first time head strength and conditioning coach and this job commands a salary of 20-30 thousand dollars. The money for this extra staff position could be allocated from the various sports teams fund raising dollars, as well as from the extra tuition that is coming in from ever rising enrollments (This could be justified as improvements to our sports programs brings in even more student athletes). Another option would be to start this position out as a part time job which would cost even less and then transition it to a full time position depending on success.

Some may see this as an unnecessary position, but those people have not experienced the true gains from proper strength training or do not fully understand it. It was once believed that strength training would cause a person to become slower and muscle bound, it has been proven that strength training actually “helps people become faster and more flexible.” (Todd, 2008) The key is making sure the athletes are taking proper care of their bodies and lifting in the way that is best suited for their sport. Strength and conditioning coaches also have the proper nutritional knowledge to help the athletes get the most out of the work they are doing.

"Strength and conditioning are the foundation of any athletic program." (Strength, 2009)This statement came from the University of Oregon's athletic web page in an article describing the superior advantage they get from their strength and conditioning program. We were fortunate enough to have their head strength and conditioning coach come to our school and give a one day seminar. He spent an entire morning demonstrating proper lifting technique and training methods, and the rest of the afternoon demonstrating plyometric and other speed and agility activities. It is very obvious that having someone like this on our staff could greatly improve the performance of our athletes in all programs. Many of our sports already compete at a very high level for the conference and nationally, but this boost could send many programs up to the next level of success.

The University of Oregon has a head strength coach along with a team of four assistants.(Strength, 2009) This system works great as they have a much larger number of athletes and the head coach can delegate training programs for his assistants to administer to the individual teams. At a smaller school like ours, we could have one strength coach who could administer the program and oversee a few teams, while serving as a reference to the other teams in helping them to develop programs. We currently use assistant sport coaches to oversee these activities, but these coaches are not experts in strength and conditioning and they only have their head coaches as a reference. Many of the programs on campus use work outs that they find on line or things that have worked for them in the past. These methods will often see results, but it leaves the door open for critical mistakes.

This proposal is not designed to take away from the weight room and conditioning coaching of our current coaches. They do a fantastic job with the knowledge they have and the time they put in. That being said, Eastern Oregon University needs a strength and conditioning coach.Having a true strength and conditioning coach would give all of our coaches extra time to put into the areas where they truly are experts. It would also push our athletes to the highest level of sports specific lifting to reach their full potential. These things all come together to improve the level at which our athletes compete and add pride to a university that is already full of athletic talent and potential.

References

MASSEY, C., SCHWIND, J., ANDREWS, D., & LANEVAL, M. (2009). AN ANALYSIS OF THE JOB OF STRENGTH AND CONDITIONING COACH FOR FOOTBALL AT THE DIVISION II LEVEL. Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research (Lippincott Williams & Wilkins), 23(9), 2493-2499. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.

Newell, K. (2007). Weight List. Coach & Athletic Director, 76(9), 60-69. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.

Phillips, C. (2008). Simple to Complex: Building a Program from the Ground Up. Coach & Athletic Director, 77(7), 45. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database. Improve Athlete's Performance? 9-18-2009. Strength and Conditioning Coach. 3-1-10. http://strength-and-conditioning-coach.blogspot.com/

Todd, T. (2008). Al Roy: The First Modern Strength Coach. JOPERD: The Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance, 79(8), 14-16. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.

Strength and Conditioning. 7-12-2009. Go Ducks!.2-28-10. http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=201550