November/December 2022 - 50

fast in competition.
* Thrive - Students will develop skills that will
translate to improved sport performance, a lifetime
of wellness, and the ability to overcome obstacles and
maximize their potential in all areas of life.
At the middle and high school levels, a strength and
conditioning coach has many challenges. One of those is
to break their athletic development program into different
blocks or levels. There is a huge difference between
training a 13- or 14-year-old freshman versus an 18- or
19-year-old senior. There are several factors to consider
when determining how to differentiate your program to
meet each student-athlete where they are. These include
birth-year age, developmental age, and training age.
We also have our student-athletes fill out
questionnaires about themselves. This allows me to
get to know them on a more personal level. Those
questions can range from anything but some of my
favorite ones are:
1. Who do you look up to and why?
2. What is one thing most people don't know about you?
3. What are the 3 most important things in your life?
4. How do you like to be coached?
Have An Open Door Policy For Coaches, Parents &
Community
My goal as the strength coach is to put the head
coach's athletes in a position to be the strongest,
fastest, most explosive, and most durable athletes for
their sport. Therefore, I plan to be the head coach's
biggest competitive advantage. Additionally, I know
that I am not controlling the athletes playing time or
who makes varsity and who does not, the head coach
is ultimately deciding that. So I want the head coach to
also have a presence in the weight room during their
team's workouts. I do not want them to think that the
weight room is my domain, I want them in the weight
room with me, because if they show their athletes that
it is important to them, then it will be important to the
athletes as well.
A complaint from many high school coaches is that
the parents of their student-athletes do not trust their
programming in the weight room. Something that has
helped me is inviting parents in to train with you. At
my previous school, we held what we called " Falcon
Family Bootcamps. " The parents and their kids (my
students) would come and train with me in the evenings.
At my current school, we hold what we call a " Morning
Machine Workout " group for parents. Even though the
program design is much different than how we train the
student-athletes, their parents getting to know me and my
personality has gone a long way for them to believe that I
have their son or daughter's best interest in mind.
Another way we have instituted an open door policy
in our strength and conditioning program is every year
we host a Dads & Daughters Lift. On the weekend we
have our female athletes invite their fathers to a workout
that is designed by me. While I design the workout, the
daughters help to coach their dads through the workout.
This is a great time for me to get to know the fathers and
the fathers to get to know me as a person and a coach.
Additionally, it's amazing to see the interactions between
the dads and daughters.
Finally, anyone who has ever run a high school weight
room probably has struggled with having upwards of 40,
60, or even 100 student-athletes in the weight room at the
same time. How can one coach properly supervise and
coach this many athletes at one time? We love to
get our sport coaches in the weight room to assist us
but oftentimes that is not enough. By holding our Falcon
Photo courtesy Micah Kurtz
50 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2022
November/December 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of November/December 2022
