By now, you know that this blog isn’t about the X’s and O’s of sports, but rather the intangibles like leadership and team chemistry. So why am I writing a post about strength and conditioning? For three reasons: 1) because I believe that strength and conditioning is what separates good teams from great ones, 2) because we all don’t have someone whose job it is to get our athletes into their best possible shape, and 3) because we care about our athletes’ welfare and want them to stay as healthy as reasonable over the course of their careers.
Back in the day, I was super fired up about strength and conditioning. As a matter of fact, if I hadn’t started coaching volleyball, I’d be a s & c coach right now…I’ve always loved the science of how the body works. So I appreciate what a good strength and conditioning coach can do. I met Barry Lovelace through a good friend on Facebook and we’ve been chatting ever since. He loves working with athletes just as much as I do and is very good at it. Whether it’s club teams or Olympians…he’s worked with them all. He also works with non-volleyballers, like softball and baseball players.
You can check out some of his videos on YouTube to see what he’s all about and when you’re ready to take it to the next level, you can buy some of his stuff from his website, Training For Volleyball. For the highest level, I’d suggest you get in contact with him so that he can come and train your athletes in person. Quite simply, he can train your athletes to jump higher, get a stronger core, and improve their quickness and reaction time. Sounds good, right?
I suspect at some point, Barry and I will start working together to take over the training world a la Pinky and The Brain. He’ll train the athletes’ bodies and I’ll train the coaches’ minds. Until we combine forces though, you should check out his website and let me know what you think.
If you knew that you could give your team a leg up on the competition…wouldn’t you do it? You can start now by checking out how Barry’s training would transform your team.
