College "Strength Coaches:

[Minno5]

Rip, I've been very involved with strength training for about 10 years now. Used to be NSCA CSCS, but gave all that up after reading Starting Strength, I started following your example on how I trained and how I trained everyone...and surprise surprise it works miracles!

So why is it that I see all these "strength and Conditioning Coaches" at big name universities, most commonly associated with football teams, that absolutely fuck everything up, i.e. bullshit squats that only go about half way down, cleans and snatches that are going to hurt people, and doing a thousand other exercises that aren't really going to help them in the long run, except make them look pretty....I guess my question is how the hell do these guys have these jobs? Or do you think most are doing a good enough job and I just really don't have a clue what I am doing or looking for....Which is very possible...

[Mark Rippetoe]

They have jobs because their recruiters have assembled a good team for them to waste time with. I was at a high-level military job a few years ago, and the question arose: why should these people pay any attention to a gym owner when a D1 strength and conditioning coach was telling them they needed to do circuits on Hammer Strength machines? I told them that a D1 S&C coach works with a demographic that is hand-selected for genetic freakiness. When your entire professional career has been spent with athletes who walk into your building with a 34" vertical, <4.6 40yd time, and 225 x 15 bench press strength, you might well be of the opinion that machine-based circuit training is the way to go. After all, look how well the kids are playing! If the only people you work with are freaks, ANY S&C METHOD LOOKS LIKE IT WORKS. And if you follow the progress of kids on this shitty program for 2-4 years -- that is, they don't make any progress, but they don't really peter out either unless they get injured -- you might well be completely ignorant of the training advancement curve described in PPST.

On the other hand, if you work with the general public in a situation where you get paid if you keep people interested because they are getting long-term results, and you watch what happens when you take rank novices and make them into advanced lifters over a period of 1-15 years, you might learn a few things about stress/recovery/adaptation. Especially if you're training yourself and are personally interested. And most especially if you are unencumbered by the dogma of swiss ball and core stability/Matveyev's undulating periodization model for everybody/hypertrophy only happens after the first 6 months/10-12 exercises using 8-12 reps for 4-5 sets at moderate intensity, or one set to failure is enough/full squats are bad for the knees/deadlifts will shear the spine/presses destroy the shoulders/Olympic lifts cannot be taught to everybody/more exercises is better than heavier weight/power comes from plyometrics, not strength combined with genetics/everyone on the team can and MUST do the same program, because we're a Team/etc., etc., ad nauseum.

So the simplest explanation is that when your job description doesn't demand it, when your tenure-track professors don't teach it, and when you aren't in a position to learn it, you won't know any better. Depending on the athletes, or in this case the soldiers you work with, this ignorance could be expensive. He seemed to understand.

[Brother Francis]

... the dogma of swiss ball and core stability/Matveyev's undulating periodization model for everybody/hypertrophy only happens after the first 6 months/10-12 exercises using 8-12 reps for 4-5 sets at moderate intensity, or one set to failure is enough/full squats are bad for the knees/deadlifts will shear the spine/presses destroy the shoulders/Olympic lifts cannot be taught to everybody/more exercises is better than heavier weight/power comes from plyometrics, not strength combined with genetics/everyone on the team can and MUST do the same program, because we're a Team/etc., etc., ad nauseum.

This describes my exercise prescription class at school to a "T." It's depressing. One class I suggested the idea of a basic linear progression where the trainee only performed 5 reps a set on very basic exercises. My prof looked at me like I was speaking Greek or something. I don't bother arguing, I just jump through the hoops they give me till it's time to graduate.

[Minno5]

Well played sir! Haha...I did some time in the military with an elite unit, and I had trouble with our PT program as well, too much damn running!

So are there any College strength coaches out there that you know of that really do a good job?

[medwards]

I was at a high-level military job a few years ago, and the question arose: why should these people pay any attention to a gym owner when a D1 strength and conditioning coach was telling them they needed to do circuits on Hammer Strength machines?

Did they listen?

[Mark Rippetoe]

So are there any College strength coaches out there that you know of that really do a good job?

Jim Steel at Penn. He is the best.

Did they listen?

They listened carefully. But it is the military.

[Briks42]

Jim Steel at Penn. He is the best.

He's also pretty strong.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gY3BqF6j-34

[Mark Rippetoe]

Yeah, the rotten fucker sent me the same video.

[Matt275]

I used to ask why we can't hit the weights for pt, or get a humvee or two and push it around the block. I was told that running is more important. I had no metal on my lapels so my opinion was pretty much worthless. We would from time to time do a litter run, Indian run, run hills. It was pretty common to carry a buddy for the last 1/2 mile or so of a run (always better to do the carrying than be carried) but no strength training. There is to much emphasis on the apft. Can't really blame the officers since high scores reflect well on the assessments.

[tertius]

I used to ask why we can't hit the weights for pt, or get a humvee or two and push it around the block. I was told that running is more important. I had no metal on my lapels so my opinion was pretty much worthless. We would from time to time do a litter run, Indian run, run hills. It was pretty common to carry a buddy for the last 1/2 mile or so of a run (always better to do the carrying than be carried) but no strength training. There is to much emphasis on the apft. Can't really blame the officers since high scores reflect well on the assessments.

Teaching to the Test is a problem in more than just schools, it seems.