Last weekend, I was at the National Strength and Conditioning Association Coaches’ Conference in Nashville.  I don’t go every year, but I wanted to go this year to get some continuing education credits.  There were also a few topics that I wanted to listen to that I thought would be pertinent to my business.

My brother-in-law lives in Nashville so I had my room and board taken care of.  I knew a few coaches that were going down so I thought it would be also good for some networking.  Overall the conference was pretty good.  Here are a few of things that I took away from it.

Loren Seagrave Teaches The 40 Yard Dash

Loren Seagrave is one of the speed gurus out there.  He was the founder of Velocity Sports Performance (or one of the key cogs) and now works for the IMG Sports Academy.  He discussed how he preps athletes for the 40 yard dash.  This is the same preparation that he did this past spring with Stephen Hill, a wide receiver prospect out of Georgia Tech.

Hill dropped almost .4 of a second in his 40 yard dash to run a 4.30 at the NFL combine.  That got him a second round draft selection by the New York Jets (of course if he knew the Jets would pick him, he probably would have screwed up his draft).  He really dissected the 40, but I think the best thing I learned was this quote he said.  “Any coach can make you tired.  Not every coach can teach you how to be faster.”

Proper Nutrition Is Still The Biggest Potential Weapon Athletes Neglect

I listened to two different presentations on nutrition.  One that dealt a little with supplements and the other just teaching about proper nutrition.  Here were a few of the things I learned:

  • You really need to get in optimal nutrients within an hour after exercise or a workout.  But, you tell the athletes 15 minutes because if you tell them an hour it quickly turns into 2 hours before they get food and they miss a big opportunity to fuel their bodies properly.
  • Sooner you cool an athlete, the sooner they will be able to eat and recover.  Some teams now have wading pools ready for athletes to get into and cool their bodies down.
  • You want to try to get 20-30 grams of protein per meal, including breakfast.
  • Higher protein can preserve lean mass.

Matt Wenning And The Conjugate Periodization Model

Stud strength coach, Matt Wenning, was speaking to discuss conjugate periodization.  A pretty interesting concept that is too complex to discuss here.  In a nutshell, you want to constantly be changing your exercises so your body doesn’t get used to the routine.  You want to have a training period of say 15 – 16 weeks.  Each week you do a maximum resistance day upper and lower.  Rest 72 hours for both muscle groups, then do a speed day for upper and lower.  Repeat the following week, but with different exercises.  So, for example back squat, then front squat, then sumo squat, etc.  Matt has seen incredible results in his own training and the training he does with others including a fire department and army rangers.  The bonus for me is that he lives in Columbus and is about 20 minutes from my facility.

Endurance Athletes Need To Strength Train To Lower Their Time

I’m probably going to write up a post about this on my endurance site http://trifastermethod.com.  But this was a doctor from “The Land Down Under” who has done the research and truly believes that strength training will help endurance athletes improve their times.  A lot of coaches don’t want to believe this because the key is not to add on strength training, but keep your training volume the same and get rid of some of your endurance training to substitute the weights.  A hard sell, but the right one.

Country Music And Me Don’t Mix

I’m not a fan of country music, but I am a fan of a good time.  I walked up and down Nashville’s main drag, Broadway, to see all the fine music establishments they had.  Even at Noon, a lot of these places had live entertainment going, with a lot of these musicians playing for 1-2 people.  I’ve heard great things about the people and the nightlife at Nashville, but I wasn’t going to experience it that weekend.  I’ll wait until a warmer day before I will try and embrace country music for an evening.

All in all a great weekend.  I have been a little disappointed about the email correspondence with these strength coaches.  Usually at these clinics, you email a strength coach a question and the respond back in a reasonable amount of time.  It’s been over a week and I’m still waiting for a response from several emails I sent out.  C’mon guys!  Where’s the professional courtesy??!!  It still was worth the trip and I hope to implement some of what I learned soon.