Creating Better Job Security in the Athletic Performance Industry

There was a time when if you wanted to be a strength coach, all you probably needed was to be fairly strong physically and have a solid background as an athlete. Now, most coaches are required to have at least a bachelor’s degree in a field related to kinesiology and at least one, maybe multiple internationally recognized certifications. There are even coaches out there holding a PhD. If you look around, there are some incredibly intelligent, ambitious people out there applying their knowledge to the scientific art of coaching athletes. I’ve had the fortune of meeting some of these coaches who are considered to be at the top of the industry, and the work they do is impacting athletics for the better worldwide. However, among similar professions, coaching doesn’t quite seem to hold its own in terms of their worth to their organization.

I want to address a concern I have that is widespread within the profession of coaching specifically, of the strength and conditioning category.

Its no secret that job insecurity and the rate of turnover run rampant across coaching. Turn on ESPN, and on any given day you see stories developing about coaches transitioning into different programs. Whereas other industries may boast a low turnover rate as a factor of their success3, it seems that within coaching, frequently bringing in new staff members may contribute to the success of your next season. If the head football coach of an NCAA Division I institution leaves a program, often he will bring his assistants with him. Depending on the relationship between him and the strength coach, that staff will be included in the move. Unfortunately, this creates a concerning level of career instability, turnover, and attrition and brings up a lot of questions in my mind. Why are strength coaches associated with high turnover like sport coaches? What impact does the lack of job security have on the profession and is there perhaps a way to counter the problem?

Obviously, at any job, if you’re not producing you’re probably going to get fired sooner or later. Coaching is no different. Whereas the sport coach’s job is partly dependent on wins and losses, a strength coach’s job is largely dependent on keeping the athletes (especially the major contributors) healthy. Our job is to train athletes so that their risk for non-traumatic injury is as reduced as possible. However, injury is an inevitable aspect of athletics. Players are going to get hurt at times when nothing could have been done to prevent it. Injuries can obviously have a devastating effect on the athlete and are a massive expense to treat. In today’s litigation-crazed society, anyone can be sued at anytime for almost anything. When our job involves implementing programs that hold the potential to seriously harm someone, if mismanaged; that amount of liability places a massive amount of pressure on the strength coach, sport coach, and athletic administration.

With that being said, it would be logical for administrative officials to take all necessary measures to place and retain a competent professional in that position. Organizations that have invested in such a coach can likely attest to the difference he or she makes to the program when athletes are well disciplined, healthy, and improving their performance on the field or court.

Still, our profession has a few kinks that need to be worked out for it to continue its progress. It’s highly beneficial for strength coaches to earn certifications, Bachelor’s, Master’s and even PhD degrees in complex sciences specific to human performance. Copious amounts of research has shown that knowledge and competent implementation of these sciences can significantly improve an athlete’s performance, longevity of their career, and overall health and wellness. Certain paths in our career field allow us the opportunity to work with elite level athletes worth millions of dollars and assist in providing an unparalleled level of entertainment to people around the world. With all these things considered, strength and conditioning still fails to stand on its own as a primary component of an athletic organization.

Athletic Trainers have the ATC. Physical Therapists are considered doctors after a three-year post-secondary program. Physicians must pass the MCAT to first be accepted into medical school and then complete residencies for a doctorate. You would be hard pressed to find a major NCAA institution or professional organization, or even a high school without one of these members on staff. You can’t be a physician without a doctorate degree. You can’t be employed as an athletic trainer without ATC accreditation. You can’t be a DPT without passing physical therapy school. In strength and conditioning, there is no law requiring that you have a bachelor’s degree before prescribing programs. There is no law mandating that you obtain a second or third degree along with a minimum amount of practical experience. There are certifications in existence and certain institutions that require some of the aforementioned factors in order to be hired, but there are also accepted certifications and institutions that do not.

Essentially, if someone suddenly decided to be a strength coach one day, it would not take nearly as much, in comparison to the professions mentioned above, to enter the field. It is literally as easy as taking a weekend class to become certified. On the other end of the spectrum, you have coaches earning extra degrees and spending years as volunteer or entry level help in order to build credibility behind their name. A Master’s in Business Administration has the highest ROI of any Master’s degree.1 A strength coach earning the relative equivalent is hardly guaranteed that his or her investment in education will be recouped. I believe this underlies a number of the “kinks in the system,” including market saturation, turnover, attrition, and comparatively low median salary.

The problem at hand is not one of wage or compensation equality between similar professions, but simply one of what is earned and how some professions are supported in comparison to others. The education strength coaches obtain consists of studying much of the same sciences (albeit applied differently) for the same length of time as other members of an athletic performance staff, yet still rank lower in median salary (~$45,000 for Athletic trainers).6 As I mentioned before, strength coaches also take on a healthy amount of liability and spend significantly more face time with the athletes than most other coaches on staff. All the more reason why a thoroughly vetted strength coach can be an extremely valuable asset to an organization. However, this is a difficult task when education and certification is not mandatory and uniform.

The National Strength and Conditioning Association Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (NSCA-CSCS) certification is the most prevalent throughout the field. In the NBA, approximately 68.2% of strength coaches hold CSCS accreditation (86.4% in total have some certification). Throughout Div. I basketball, the number certified with the CSCS is 78.3%, and among Div. II, 38.7%. Of the total 55% of certified strength coaches in Division II basketball, only 19.4% of them are strictly strength coaches. Throughout football, 72.5% of Div. I strength coaches hold their CSCS and 69.5% in Div. II. At the Div. II level, the number suggest that coaches are sport coaches first, and strength coaches second, often not having the proper education.5 Note that numbers are not even provided for the NCAA Division III or NAIA levels because chances are there is no strength coach at these levels.

One of these things is not like the other. What do physical therapists, physicians, athletic trainers, registered dietitians have that strength coaches do not? Either a single, well established, nationally recognized governing body that issues nearly all accreditation within their discipline, or a mandated level of education that must be reached in order to operate as a professional in the respective career field. Strength and conditioning has the NSCA. It also has the CSCCA, the USAW, and we can’t forget to mention the personal training certification boards such as the NSCA-CPT, ACE, CrossFit, ACSM, NASM, ISSA, AFPA (probably not an exhaustive list) through which some institutions and organizations accept and employ candidates. The NSCA and CSCCA are the two most highly recognized organizations for strength coaches, however they are the only two that require someone to have or be working towards a Bachelor’s degree. The CSCCA requires candidates have at least 640 hours of experience under a Master Strength and Conditioning Coach or approved mentor. Even with the existence of these two organizations, other certifications will suffice for some employers. Its unfortunate because this largely devalues those who choose the more diligent path to becoming a strength coach. They are left to fight for jobs with people who are perhaps under qualified and therefore, will work for less. Anyone not qualified to handle the myriad of situations that a strength coach may face presents a significant liability to the entire existence of the organization or institution. Read this story about what recently happened at the University of Oregon and my point is made.

At times I have been overwhelmed at the assumed responsibility that comes with being a strength coach. The level of job insecurity and rate of turnover is concerning, especially for developing coaches working to move up the ranks. So what, if anything, can be done about it?

The professionals mentioned above, including strength coaches, all make up vital members of an athletic performance staff. They serve specialized roles that all involve an intense studying and understanding of how the human body responds to the stresses of athletics. Consensus among who is qualified and who is not and mandatory minimums on education requirements would be a good start towards better job security for strength and conditioning coaches.

References:

1. Byrne, J. A. (2015, October 15). Should You Get An MBA? Is The Degree Worth It? Retrieved March 29, 2017, from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/should-you-get-mba-degree-worth-john-a-byrne
2. Haggerty, L. (2005). A Profile of Strength and Conditioning Coaches at National Collegiate Athletic Association Division II and III Member Institutions. Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Retrieved from http://dc.etsu.edu/etd/1094
3. Inc, G. (n.d.). The Truth About Turnover. Retrieved March 29, 2017, from http://www.gallup.com/businessjournal/316/Truth-About-Turnover.aspx
4. LLC, A. of M. (2011, August 4). So You Want My Job: NBA Strength and Conditioning Coach. Retrieved from http://www.artofmanliness.com/2011/08/04/so-you-want-my-job-nba-strength-and-conditioning-coach/
5. Magnusen, M. (2007). Assessing Differences in Strength and Conditioning Coach Self-perceptions of Leadership Style at the NBA, Division I, and Division II Level. ProQuest.
6. Salary: Athletic Trainer. (n.d.). Retrieved March 29, 2017, from https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/athletic-trainer-salary-SRCH_KO0,24.htm
7. The Football Four Podcast on Alabama’s coaching turnover. (n.d.). Retrieved March 29, 2017, from http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2017/02/10/football-four-podcast-alabamas-coaching-turnover/97754540/

Do You Have a Strength Coach? Well You Should...

Many great coaches, researchers, and educators have since contributed to the growth of the profession of strength and conditioning far beyond its pioneers’ perceived expectations.

There are some phenomenal coaches out there doing phenomenal work. Of all the athletic performance coaches out in the field, I pay particularly close attention to Ron McKeefery, Brett Bartholomew, and Altis World. I’ve mentioned Ron McKeefery and Brett Bartholomew in previous posts but they deserve endless mention because besides having reached the pinnacle of what ambitious strength coaches hope to reach in their careers, they are pioneers-turned-activists, giving back to the profession by educating those following in their footsteps. After having met and conversed with both of these men, I believe they genuinely want the best for all those aspiring to be strength and conditioning coaches and I especially respect their efforts to challenge many of the stigmas surrounding strength coaches.

Altis World (Altis for short) is right up there with McKeefery and Bartholomew in their efforts to fill the profession of coaching with evidence-based practices. Altis is continually researching traditional methods of training athletes and coaching sport with intent to evaluate their efficacy within modern systems. If you have never heard of them, I encourage you to check them out however, I will warn you that a lot of the information they produce can easily go over the head of a person of even above average intelligence. They may come across as a bit grandiose in their knowledge but keep in mind that they are attempting to challenge practices that have been in place for decades and bring to light a profession that operates primarily behind the scenes. With coaches and organizations like these dominating the industry, athletic performance coaches are only becoming more and more valuable to the athlete and the governing organization. I argue three encompassing reasons why strength and conditioning, or athletic performance coaches, provide tremendous value to an organization.

Reason #1: Time

Seventy-plus hour work weeks...weekends spent traveling to games...holidays...summers...I have learned that being a strength and conditioning coach requires more time and dedication than I ever had as an athlete. You can liken the job of a strength coach to that of a school teacher’s. Instead of creating lesson plans, we create training programs. Rather than a classroom, we teach out of weight rooms. In addition to teaching from fall to spring, we also teach from June on through August. The modern system of athletics calls for athletes to train for sport year round and it is our job to see that the athletes get what they need to be prepared for their athletic seasons. Its exhausting just thinking about how much time it takes to prepare an athlete or a team for one training session, let alone an entire annual program. Time is often the most valuable asset to a human being and it can be a strong indicator of what is truly important to that person. Nearly all of a strength coach’s time is spent to benefit other people. There is no commission for how many athletes we train, or bonuses for the ones that go onto professional careers. We simply work to empower those who are within our sphere of influence so that they might achieve something they thought they  otherwise couldn’t.

Reason #2: Injury Prevention

With the advent of year-round training and early sport-specialization, strength coaches are tasked with maintaining the health of the athlete while simultaneously improving performance.  A major concern for parents placing their children is sports is the likelihood of an injury. Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) tears are among the most common injuries suffered in field and court sports. The power of research has shown that ACL injuries, which are often traumatic and devastating to an athlete’s career, are preventable through adequate training strategies.2 The practitioners that are most equipped to implement these strategies are strength and conditioning, and or, athletic performance coaches. We can even utilize assessments such as the Functional Movement Screen (FMS)1 to determine an athlete’s propensity for injury and estimate the likelihood of experiencing an ACL, or other traumatic injury.3 From there, we can prescribe the proper methods to address any weaknesses and avoid, as best we can, an athlete being injured in some terrible way. Understand that the ability to perform these tasks requires a professional with higher education as well as high-quality experience implementing such practices. If you are a young coach, I cannot stress this enough; it is vital that coaches in this profession continue their education. Learn to love learning! Use the tools that are available to you and allow them to help perfect your craft. Your job will depend on it and so will the health and well-being of others under your care.

Reason #3: Recruiting

If you were to go on YouTube and search “strength and conditioning facilities,” you would find videos giving tours of weight rooms containing millions of dollars in state of the art training equipment, turf fields, athlete nutrition centers, and tons more. Some of the shiny, expensive toys we get to play with has to be one of the best things about being a strength coach! But I digress. As mentioned earlier, strength coaches spend an awful lot of time in these facilities and their “Iron Castles” become the hub of off-season recruiting. In my "pre-NARP" (Non-Athletic Regular Person) days, I remember the “facilities pitch” being a major selling point for me as a recruit. USA Today produced an interesting article examining the role of strength and conditioning coaches in recruiting and that being a large reason as to why some coaches at the Division I Football level are making six and seven-figure salaries. It more than explains a school’s inclination to pour millions of dollars into a facility in which the institution’s “money making” (for lack of a better reference) athletes are going to spend most of their time and improve their abilities. Also consider that the most worthy candidate for pitching incoming athletes on the atmosphere of the program, the level to which it is progressing, and the potential for an extended career would be the coach that sees them most often and whose job it is to evaluate character and work ethic as well as athletic ability.

I want to quickly bring us back to the question of interest from the previous post, “How should a strength and conditioning coach be valued?” To be honest, if there is an exact answer, I don’t know it yet. I provided some reasons as to why they should be highly valued, but how exactly? I have no idea. Should the median salary be higher? Should they be given larger budgets and staffing power? Should they be assured better job security? I believe the solutions to these questions are in the works and I will discuss them in my next post. However, for the time being, I would personally be happy if they would just let us have a spot in all of the team pictures. I mean at some levels we serve as a coach for more than one sport...

References:

1. Kraus, K., Schutz, E., Taylor, W. R., & Doyscher, R. (2014). Efficacy of the functional movement screen: a review. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, (12), 3571.
2. Myer, G., Ford, K., Brent, J., & Hewett, T. (2012). An Integrated Approach to Change the Outcome Part Ii: Targeted Neuromuscular Training Techniques to Reduce Identified Acl Injury Risk Factors. JOURNAL OF STRENGTH AND CONDITIONING RESEARCH, 26(8), 2272–2292.
3. Serpell, B. G., Scarvell, J. M., Ball, N. B., & Smith, P. N. (2012). Mechanisms and risk factors for noncontact ACL injury in age mature athletes who engage in field or court sports: a summary of the literature since 1980. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, (11), 3160.

Strength and Conditioning Coaches: Simply a Support Staff Member?

The general concept of lifting weights is nothing new. There is a great documentary on Netflix detailing how the efforts of Arnold Schwarzenegger and others alike helped morph the practice into sport through bodybuilding. The imposing physiques created though bodybuilding inspired athletes to begin lifting weights with intent of improving in their sport. It’s laughable that there was actually a point in time when coaches thought that lifting weights was detrimental to athletic performance.1

Boyd Epley (Photo Courtesy of Volt Athletics)

Then came Boyd Epley. Those of us in the profession of strength and conditioning know that we owe a lot to Epley and his efforts to establish and progress the profession to where it now stands today. In the early days, coaches did not have access to the technology that now allows us to analyze nearly every factor that goes into an athlete’s training and every benefit that results. Since Epley founded the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) in 19811, knowledge behind practices and available technology have progressed alongside the profession at a rapid rate. As a result, almost anyone wanting to work with elite athletes in a professional setting is required to have one of two internationally recognized certifications: either the Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist issued by the NSCA, or the Strength and Conditioning Coach Certified (SCCC) issued by the Certified Strength and Conditioning Coaches Association (CSCCa).

Both of the certifications mentioned above require its applicants to show proficiency in a number of scientific and practical disciplines such as exercise physiology, anatomy, biomechanics, physics, exercise programming, therapeutic exercise, performance nutrition, facility management & organization, and safety standards.2 Members on the Boards of Directors for these two organizations are continuously researching theories and practices relating to these disciplines in order to educate its members and remain at the cutting edge of athletic performance. Despite incredible advancements in technology and the demand for coaches to continually educate themselves, there is still debate concerning the true value of a strength and conditioning coach to an athletic program.

Let me be clear, I am not about to lecture you on the plight of a strength coach and why they could or should be the most important coach to a team, or that they should be the highest paid, or placed under a brighter spotlight. I’ve said before that coaches are not in it solely for the money or credibility (or at least they shouldn’t be). However, I would like to point out that there are probably still some sport coaches out there that consider strength coaches as nothing more than “support staff.” To them, athletic performance training may not be necessary for their athletes' to improve performance. These are the types of coaches at whom you could throw all the evidence in the world and they would not budge on their opinion because they have always done things “a certain way.” Perhaps their way has won them a championship or two...perhaps not.

In all reality, strength and conditioning coaches do exist to support and enhance athletes’ performance on the field via training done in the weight room and on the field. At the same time, they serve so many more roles to the individual athlete and the entire athletic organization. It begs the question, “How should a strength and conditioning coach be valued?” I think more often than not, those that operate in the realm of athletics would agree that a strength coach provides tremendous value to a team for many reasons.

I can personally attest to the difference our strength coach made in our football team from my sophomore year to my junior year of college. We hired a coach who held both his CSCS and SCCC certifications and had experience working at the NCAA Division I and NFL levels. His credentials alone created excitement among the team simply because we knew we were getting someone who knew what he was doing and was going to make us better, and that is exactly what happened. Am I saying that our success was directly caused by hiring a certified coach? No, but there was a noticeable difference in our team’s physique, strength gains, resilience to fatigue and injury, and mentality from before he arrived to after.

In high school, I had a strength coach who was crowned America’s Strongest Man in 1999 and took 3rd in the World’s Strongest Man competition that same year. Just watch him deadlift this Toyota Camry back in the day! I owe a lot to this man for revealing a passion in me for strength and conditioning. We didn’t win every game, nor did we have the purest of athletes, however I do remember consistently winning weightlifting competitions against rival high schools and outlasting teams through the 4th quarter because we were more conditioned and perhaps a little stronger mentally.

I am just scratching the surface regarding the value of a strength coach. This debate is ongoing among athletic administrators, leaders within professional organizations, and sport coaches--and certainly to my satisfaction--more attention is being brought to the profession. I want people to know the details of what I and so many others do because I think it has the power to impact and teach all people regardless of their athletic prowess. Next week, I will go into detail about a few reasons why I think strength and conditioning coaches are of great value to a team or organization and how that value is steadily increasing.

References:

1. Shurley, J. (2012). The Strength of Nebraska: Boyd Epley, Husker Power, and the formation of the strength coaching profession. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 26(12), 3177-3188.
2. Martinez, D. M. (2004). Study of the key determining factors for the division I head strength and conditioning coach. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 18(1), 5-18.

Why Coach Athletic Performance?

In my previous post I talked about the importance of explaining why you choose to do something? In this post, I am going to let you in on three reasons why I chose to become a strength and conditioning coach.

I am convinced that there is a gene for “coaching” and it is well embedded within my DNA. My father had been a football coach for as long as I could remember and now mentors high school aged football players in the Southern California area who are preparing to enter the cut-throat world of Division I athletics. My mother, in her own respect, as one of the top real estate agents in the Indianapolis, Indiana area, spent much of her career coaching and training up-and-coming realtors for a leading local home builder. One time I asked my parents at a young age why they named me, “Kennedy” (Not because of President Kennedy). I don’t remember all the details in their answer, but I do remember I was told they named me after a football coach that had a significant impact on their life.

Slightly deviating from my father’s path as strictly a football coach, I chose to enter the profession of strength and conditioning. If you know nothing about strength and conditioning I can summarize by telling you it is the most interesting, most frustrating, most rewarding, most challenging, most influential to an athlete, most exhausting job that exists on this planet! I may be a little biased but I think most coaches would agree. Nevertheless, there are three reasons why I specifically chose to be a strength coach rather than strictly a sport coach:

1. The Atmosphere

If you were a team-sport athlete, you may relate to a large amount of your time having been spent in the weight room. As a strength coach, I am well aware that not too many athletes thoroughly enjoy being in the weight room. There is nothing natural about what goes on in the weight room. Athletes are participating in workout sessions that are inducing physiological stress and damage to their bodies. What follows is a painful process to repair what was damaged in order to go through it again a day or two later.

Whether it is a school weight room or a public gym, these environments are designed to expose weakness and “rank” people as being potentially better than someone else. In light of this, there are not too many experiences outside of athletics that can prepare you for life in the way that the environment of a weight room or gym can. In his podcasts, Ron McKeefery refers to the weight room as the greatest microcosmic representation of life. When I am coaching my athletes, their responses to what I am  putting them through tells me all I need to know about their character and how they will handle adversity. If there is one certainty in life, it is that we all will face difficult trials at some point. Be it losing a job, divorce, death of family members, finances, illness, college...something significant is going to hit you hard and you are going to have to find a way to cope.

The struggle of the weight room allows me to proactively confront the struggles of life that my athletes may go through on a daily basis. I never claim to have all the answers to life’s many problems, but I can say that growing up in athletics and especially my experiences with my teammates and coaches through off-season training sessions has taught me how to fight through seemingly impossible situations. If I could sum up in one sentence what being in the weight room as an athlete and strength coach has taught me, it is that I have very little control over what ultimately happens in my life, but I possess a massive amount of influence. In the context of this post, I could train using a number of different methods, weights, programs, etc. but I, nor my athletes, have any control over how their bodies respond physically. What I can influence is mindset, attitude, and self-efficacy. Strength coaches are often the most organized (some to the point of obsessive-compulsive) people you may ever meet. With that being said, the chaotic nature of this job forces coaches to practice the skill of improvisation and learn to deal with uncontrollable situations as they come. I admit this was a hard truth for me to realize at first but I’ve found that becoming a more, “go-with the-flow” type guy has allowed me to truly enjoy working with all types of people and and personalities.

2. The Coach-Athlete Relationship

One thing I clearly remember being a constant in my athletic experience is how the strength coach was often the most trusted coach on the staff. This was due to the strength coach spending by far the most amount of time with us athletes. In fact, he was the only coach I would interact with on a near daily basis. The job description of a strength coach is multifaceted and complex, and with that comes a plethora of responsibilities, however one underlying necessity of a strength coach is the ability to know their athletes on a personal yet professional level. I could write a book on the number of questions, complaints, and concerns with which athletes have approached me. Often times in order for me to perform my job and address those issues, I have to know what that particular athlete is doing, perhaps even outside of the weight room. The ability to have these conversations establishes a level of trust between the coach and the athlete that can last a lifetime. I can honestly say the only coaches I consistently keep in contact with from college and high school are not my head coaches, not my position coaches, but my strength coaches. The time I spent with them and the time that they invested in me made me a better player and more mature person. As a strength coach, I strive to make people better in more ways than solely their athletic ability.

3. The Diversity

I am that type of person who absolutely cannot stand monotony. I would drive myself mad if I performed the same routine, providing the same workout programs, running the same conditioning drills every...single...day. Sports are variable in nature, therefore the manner in which we train people for them should specifically mimic the variables present in that sport.1,2 That is precisely why I love what I do. My job allows for endless amounts of creativity to the point where you can be doing something different every single day. Simple or complex, high volume or low volume, heavy or light, fast or slow, the possibilities go on and on. I would also like to point out that at some levels, (specifically high school, and NCAA Divisions II & III) strength and conditioning coaches are the only coaches in an athletic department that work with various sports on a highly frequent basis. Therefore, a strength coach has to know how to elicit great performance with athletes of different sports, using similar principles while shifting the focus for each sport. For the reasons explained above plus many others unmentioned, this profession keeps you on your toes at all times and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

It is often said in various ways that if you love what you do for a living, you will never work a day in your life. We read articles and postings all the time about how dissatisfied people are with their careers and those who fall victim to that situation often think if they change careers, they will be more happy. I would recommend to those people that before applying to a job or considering a career move, they seriously consider why they are doing what they are doing more than just what they want to do. There are a number of reasons why I could get out of strength and conditioning and maybe have a career that is less stressful, doesn’t require as many hours, and pays more, but there are more and better reasons as to why I stay in it. If you are a coach, trainer or educator in any form, you know that we don’t necessarily do it for the fame, or the money, or the credit. We do what we do because of the potential to change lives and help people become something they never thought they could be. In my opinion no amount of money can equate to that reward.

“The people who make it to the top -- whether they’re musicians, or great chefs, or corporate honchos -- are addicted to their calling...they are the ones who’d be doing whatever it is they love, even if they weren’t being paid.” -- Quincy Jones

References

1. Kawamori, N et al. (2006). Velocity Specificity of Resistance Training: Actual movement velocity versus intent to move explosively. Journal of Strength and Conditioning, 28(2), 86-91.
2. Read, PJ et al. (2016). Performance Modeling: A Systems Based Approach to Exercise Selection. Journal of Strength and Conditioning, 38(4), 90-97.