The State of Strength & Conditioning Coaching | Mark Rippetoe
T-Nation's version of this appeared in 2014.
I am so thankful to have been brought up in an era (80's-90's) as an athlete and young strength coach around people like Boyd Epley and Mike Arthur at Nebraska (clean and squat!), and Al Miller with the NY Giants (olympic lifts and squats are good for NFL guys too!). Didn't hurt at that time to pick up a book by a guy named Starr called "The Strongest Shall Survive". I didn't even know there was any other way.
Heck, even back then (90's) I went to a strength clinic put on in Boston by Mike Boyle and he still liked cleans and squats (but was leaning more towards front squats he said).
Easiest ten years of my coaching career were in college teaching the olympic lifts and squats. Don't remember anyone who couldn't do it(?)
Agreed Coach John J. I was at LSU in the 70s and 80s, defensive back and special teams. We never ran stupid cone drills or danced around on 1 foot. 2 a days were some wind sprints. Once the season started, just endless running thru plays and game scenarios. Only time back then we ever lost was to Bear Bryant's Alabama
In season lifting was minimal, off season, nothing but squats, power clean, bench, incline bench, a few deadlifts and Nautilus neck machines. Usually 3x5. I have lost touch with the staff there, do not know if they have resorted to such silliness, hope not.
To other coaches:
As a former player, I can tell you that any practice besides real playing conditions is about useless. To me, even power cleans were just something else we had to do and had no transfer to the field. As Coach Rip has said, at that level, we can learn the technique in a week and from then on, it is all about strength. To give you a frame of reference, in my 30s I went snow skiing in CO with my family, never been in my life. Was doing black diamond runs by the end of the day. My cousin, who had been many times, could not do the runs. My legs were not even sore the next day. The main reason I was able to do this was I had kept lifting all my life. Others in the group were exhausted.
HTH
Haven't posted in a while but you are spot on Rip.
University Strength and Conditioning Coaching and why people should not bother.