Jared Nessland SSC: From College Strength Coach to SS Denver

[Mark Rippetoe]

From College Strength and Conditioning to Starting Strength Denver: A Strength Coach’s Journey

[Ray Gillenwater]

This is excellent, Jared. Thank you for sharing!

I had a call with your new neighbors last week (they’re interested in opening franchise gyms). Apparently they found out about your background and both of them (husband and wife) signed up for SS Denver.

[Jared Nessland]

This is excellent, Jared. Thank you for sharing!

I had a call with your new neighbors last week (they’re interested in opening franchise gyms). Apparently they found out about your background and both of them (husband and wife) signed up for SS Denver.

Yes, they are both great people. Hopefully it works out. Excited to work with them. But credit to those sales probably goes to my fiance, Laurie. She is a damn good salesman, better then me for sure. This after only doing the program for about 6 weeks.

[Travis Reid]

"I am not very sentimental or emotional, and I don't often express myself well."

There is real sentiment, emotion and expression all throughout this piece Jared. It is an excellent summation of your career to date. And I have no doubt all those you seek to thank will appreciate every word.

Congratulations on the many successes you've had to this point. I trust you'll receive the same level of gratification, if not more, training members of the general populous, as you did college athletes.

I'm really looking forward the opening of SS Denver, and wish you every success.

[Ryan Arnold]

Great article Jared. Best of luck in Denver!

[Yngvi]

Jared, what metrics did you use or consider to prove to the coaches/administrators that you were in fact doing your job more effectively than your predecessor?
I know some university S&C coaches get bonuses or salary increases based on the on-field success of the team. However, that is often not a valid evaluation criterion.

It looks like Injury rates are an excellent metric. The average improvement of the main lifts of the athletes compared to an industry average would be a good metric, I assume. Body composition may be another. There are likely several physiological and sport-specific metrics that could be of value. How did you approach it, how well did your approach pan out and how much data did you compile over your time at Sacramento State?

[Jared Nessland]

Great article Jared. Best of luck in Denver!

Thanks Ryan!

[Jared Nessland]

Jared, what metrics did you use or consider to prove to the coaches/administrators that you were in fact doing your job more effectively than your predecessor?
I know some university S&C coaches get bonuses or salary increases based on the on-field success of the team. However, that is often not a valid evaluation criterion.

It looks like Injury rates are an excellent metric. The average improvement of the main lifts of the athletes compared to an industry average would be a good metric, I assume. Body composition may be another. There are likely several physiological and sport-specific metrics that could be of value. How did you approach it, how well did your approach pan out and how much data did you compile over your time at Sacramento State?

These are interesting questions, and I'm not sure there are correct answers. I think the only metrics we can use is performance data. Ask the coach what physical characteristics they want improved, identify the best tests to measure said characteristics, and test them. When i did football throughout my career we always tested: Clean, Squat, DL (occasionally), Bench, more recently Press, sometimes Snatch and Chins. We also tested Vertical Jump, Broad Jump, 10's and 40's electronic, Pro-agility, and sometimes a conditioning test. I think the run times are important and i always tested them until i wasn't allowed too. If we are doing our job, these numbers should increase (or decrease in case of sprints). I think as a Strength Coach, you HAVE to do this. What's the saying? If your not testing, your just guessing? I'm tired of this trend of "I feel so much stronger or faster or more athletic" or "we look to stiff or too slow or too whatever" without any tangible data. In fact, i have an article in the works about it. IF you are training and not testing, you're exercising and you have no idea if they are getting better or not.

Yeah, i agree that on field success isn't an good criterion.

I also don't really agree that injury rates are that great of a metric. Kurt Hester recently tweeted (Twitter / ? that injury reduction is the responsibility of the entire football program: Head Coach, Position Coach, S&C Team, ATC Team, Equipment Team, Field Maintenance. Couldn't agree more, but I'd add 2 more: 1) the athlete and 2) luck. Is the athlete getting sleep, eating enough, going to sleep? Doing the things they need to do? I've had great years injury wise and terrible years. My last working with football being the worst in my career. But we had like 4-5 lower leg surgeries, i think 4 thumb/wrist surgeries, among some others. How do we prevent those? It's a collective thing. Can we get blamed for concussions when the Head Coach runs Oklahoma drill 4 times a week during camp? Versus the coach that doesn't do any live hitting? Or that our helmets were so far out of date and expired vs someone that has all new top of the line equipment? Or like my colleagues basketball coach who pulls them out of the weight room in the summer (down to 45 minutes) and won't let them squat or Deadlift, then runs the crap out of them all summer, then has a couple ACL tears in the preseason? How do we blame this on the Strength Coach? But we do. It's absurd. It's a major problem with the profession.

As far as evaluation, another big problem with our profession. There isn't anybody that can accurately evaluate us. Most big time football strength coaches just report to the football coach (this is a problem too). Bob Alejo has written some great pieces about this:
3 Things S&C Coaches Should Require from Their Supervisors
How to Fix What Is Wrong with Strength and Conditioning - SimpliFaster

Some are going to a medical model, i don't think this is the answer and presents a bunch of problems also. I think, which Bob mentions, is that we need qualified Ex-Strength Coaches that end up in administration. They are the only ones that can evaluate a strength coach i think. So were are going to need over 300, good quality strength coaches, that want to end up as administrators. How long will this take? Our profession has major issues in the areas you asked questions about. I'm not sure what the answers are. Hopefully Nate, Tom, John, Amanda, and some of the others will put in their two cents.

[Yngvi]

Curious if the numbers from those tests were ever saved for historical data and trend analysis? Or did they tend to get discarded after the season and when players moved on?

I suppose injury rates can be as problematic as on-field success as a metric. The 85% reduction Norcott mentioned in your other article led me to believe there would be situational validity for its use. However, it does not sound like that was your experience.

Thanks for the articles, I will give them a read over.

Could you send me an example or explain precisely the "medical model" of evaluation? I am unfamiliar with it; although I am guessing it is currently a non-standardized battery of medical tests that includes body composition, injury history, blood work and patient questionairres.

I agree with you that there hasn't been any way to objectively or effectively evaluate strength coaches, especially at the higher levels of athletics. That is exactly why I was interested in knowing more about your experiences. It will take a long time to get that many admins who can effectively evaluate a coach subjectively.

I think it would be possible to develop an objective, quantifiable metric to demonstrate efficacy.

[Jared Nessland]

Curious if the numbers from those tests were ever saved for historical data and trend analysis? Or did they tend to get discarded after the season and when players moved on?

Well i have all the data i've collected since i've started coaching for the most part.

I suppose injury rates can be as problematic as on-field success as a metric. The 85% reduction Norcott mentioned in your other article led me to believe there would be situational validity for its use. However, it does not sound like that was your experience.

I may have jumped the gun on my response. I do think we need to look at injury data. I do think it is part our responsibility. I probably took injuries more personal and caused more stress then anything in my career. Much more then wins and losses. I was just alluding to the fact that we get blamed for ALL the injuries, yet there are a 100 other things that go into them. It's unfortunate. The other big thing is previous injury history. If i buy lemon off the lot, chances are gonna have problems down the road. Pretty much the same with athletes (the stats are pretty supportive of that too). It doesn't suprise me, John's claim of 85% injury rate. I believe he is their first strength coach. If they had a bad year injury wise prior, then started a well coached Strength and Conditioning program, i'd expect the stats to be pretty good. But, if he were my assistant, i would caution him about it. If you claim the good, you have to claim the bad too. And there will be bad at some point. There are just too many things you don't control. Same with all these strength coaches that are about themselves, taking all the praise and recognition for the wins, yet you don't hear a peep from them about the losses.

Thanks for the articles, I will give them a read over.

Could you send me an example or explain precisely the "medical model" of evaluation? I am unfamiliar with it; although I am guessing it is currently a non-standardized battery of medical tests that includes body composition, injury history, blood work and patient questionairres.

Medical model refers to reporting structure. Strength Coaches report to the medical professionals outside the University. The University of Kansas just went to it:

Kansas Athletics launches groundbreaking new model for student-athlete care | The University of Kansas



I agree with you that there hasn't been any way to objectively or effectively evaluate strength coaches, especially at the higher levels of athletics. That is exactly why I was interested in knowing more about your experiences. It will take a long time to get that many admins who can effectively evaluate a coach subjectively.

I think it would be possible to develop an objective, quantifiable metric to demonstrate efficacy.

Hopefully Nate Moe will chime in. He is on the CSCCa board, and i'm sure has been in alot of meetings and/or discussions about some of these issues and where its going.