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Conditioning.Conditioning.Conditioning.

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Inside this issue:

Feature Article 1

Feature Article (cont.) 2

Nutrition Tip 3

Leadership 101 4

Coach’s Corner 4

Coach’s Corner (cont.) 5

Book Review 6

Interviewed by Megan Young

This month we went Under the Bar with Ron

McKeefery, Head Strength Coach at the University

of Tennessee to speak about their Winter program.

Ron McKeefery joined Tennessee in January 2011

as Head S&C Coach for Football. The 2008 Under

Armour Collegiate S&C Coach of the Year,

McKeefery recently spent 11 seasons at South Flor-

ida, where he served as Assistant AD for S&C/Head

S&C Coach.

He is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Special-

ist with Distinction and Coach Practitioner under

the NSCA as well as a Strength and Conditioning

Coach Certified under the CSCCa. He has also

served as the state NSCA

Director for Florida (North).

The Missouri native owns a

bachelor of arts in biology

from Ottawa and a master

of arts in adult education

from South Florida.

McKeefery earned all-

conference honors in both

football and track at Ottawa

and was also a two-time

Academic All-America.

What is the philosophy behind your program?

I am principle-based, not philosophy based as to

not limit myself to one set way of doing things for

neuromuscular adaptation, overload, progression,

periodization, multi-joint movements, reversibility,

and variability. Incorporating a new training appa-

ratus, i.e. battling ropes I will first have to decide is

this something I can progress, how can I overload,

and can there be variety; I am not just a fad

strength coach. There must be a level of continuity

created.

Why do you do what you do? What is your moti-

vation?

Football strength and conditioning was such a big

part of my development, it is important for me to

give that back. Every day you must set goals, have

a plan, deal with adversity; all of which we deal

with in life. I care about my athletes more im-

portantly as a person than just as a player. What

makes you great in strength and conditioning as an

athlete, also makes you successful in life.

What is the one piece of advice you would give to

a coach looking for an internship/GA? First full-

time job?

There has been a shift to

where now that the people

that are currently just finish-

ing up there athletic careers

or undergraduate course

work have a great sense of

entitlement and are looking

for the quick fix to the top. I

am looking for brutal hones-

ty, demonstration of great

work ethic, and an under-

standing that you are not

going to make it overnight.

January 2012

Under the Bar with... Ron McKeefery Head S&C Coach | U of Tennessee Football

What direction do you see your profes-

sion heading?

I love the profession and it is the great,

but I am concerned. How do you evaluate

a strength coach? This is a volatile profes-

sion. How many strength coaches do you

know that retire within the profession?

We have not defined for our employers

how to evaluate us, so a lot of great

coaches lose jobs or leave. For us to es-

tablish long-term sustainability we need

an academic unit where there is a mas-

ter’s degree in strength and conditioning

and some sort of licensing. The profession

will continue to grow and evolve gaining

more jobs working with pro athletes, in

tactical areas, and high schools.

How do you evaluate and continue to

educate those that work with you?

I meet with my full-time coaches to find

what they are passionate about and

where they want to go in their career. As

for myself, I try to model the

behavior I want to see in my

staff. I am 35 years old with

13 years’ experience as a

head coach, so I am in a

constant state of learning

whether it be through books,

podcasts, articles, or web-

sites.

What is your Olympic lifting

teaching progression? What

verbiage is used to classify

your lifts to your athletes?

Typically the Olympic lifts are

taught during the season to

the new comers who are not

playing as much; Deadlift- shrug, high pull,

drop clean, hang clean, power clean. With

regard to jerk and snatch, we do not train

above 75% on overhead explosive move-

ments. Our program classifies lifts into

three categories: testable, multi-joint, and

single-joint.

Discuss your main goals for this coming

off-season at Tennessee.

1. Maximize genetic potential and athleti-

cism (kinesthetic awareness, strength,

flexibility, etc) using scientifically proven

protocols.

2. Protect against overuse injuries and

rehabilitate exist injuries to prepare for

spring ball.

3. Be athlete and position specific in train-

ing by taking into account training ages,

levels of fitness, and addressing pre-

existing injuries.

4. Develop mental toughness by creating a

culture of dominance.

5. Maintain a 1:4 athlete-coach ratio and

make training fun by appealing to the

athlete’s competitive spirit.”

Discuss your conditioning and lifting pro-

tocol for the off-season.

All year-round we maintain a basic level of

fitness, during winter conditioning the

volume of training is lower but the intensi-

ty is still full-speed. After the phase one,

where agility prep and movement

patterns are addressed we enter what we

call our “Hard Knox” program. We focus

on having great attention to detail and on

the mechanics of running and change of

direction without ever backing down on

intensity. Within the “Hard Knox” there

are two days focusing on linear condition-

ing with concentrating on anaerobic pow-

er (anything less than 100 yards) or aero-

bic endurance (anything greater than 100

yards). The other two days of the pro-

grams are agility based using a 4 or 8 sta-

tion circuit.

Typically the winter is eight weeks, but

this year we have nine, so the off-season

periodization peaks every three weeks

then unload on the 4th week, also allow-

ing chances to retest 1RM in bench and

squat if the week before provided a poor

max. We follow a variation to Wendler’s 5

-3-1 protocol and use some conjugate

periodization over the three blocks by

changing our maximal effort exercises. ♦

(Continued from Page 1)(Continued from Page 1)

Under the Bar with... Ron McKeefery Head S&C Coach | U of Tennessee Football

University of Tennessee Football

Winter Off Season Training Week

Monday

Speed develop-ment (conditioning emphasis)

Power Clean (Max Effort)

Squat (Dynamic Effort)

Skill dev. & Posi-tion Work

Tuesday

4-8 Station Agili-ties

Bench Press (Max Effort)

Thursday

Speed develop-ment (non-conditioning emphasis)

Olympic Varia-tion (Dynamic Effort)

Friday

Mobility work

Squat (Max Effort)

Wednesday

Voluntary lifting during Phase I

Can include needs-based ‘Blitz’ packages

Nutrition TipNutrition Tip Capitalize on the ‘Power Hour’ by: Adam Feit

Over the years, research & prac-

tical experience among athletes

have proved that the period

directly before, during, and after

training has the most influence

on strength development, re-

covery and future performance,

when dealing with nutrition.

Depending on specific goals,

whether it be muscle gain, fat

loss or maintenance, this peri-

workout period, known as the

POWER HOUR (60 minutes be-

fore and 60 minutes after train-

ing), can make or break the re-

sults us coaches see for our

athletes during the developmen-

tal training periods. Here is a

basic starting point when pre-

paring your off-season or in-

season nutritional program: For

athletes who need to gain mus-

cle, have them focus on three

things: eating/drinking 30

minutes to 1 hour before train-

ing, during training, and within 1

hour post training. Pre-workout

snacks should include items high

in carbohydrates, moderate in

protein and low in fat (snack/

granola bars, workout shakes,

etc.) If available, have them

drink their post-workout shakes

during the session as well

(prefer a 3:1 ratio of carbohy-

drates to protein). Once the

training session is over, make

sure they drink another post-

workout shake (chocolate milk

also works great) and eat a meal

high in carbohydrates, moderate

in protein and low in fat, as soon

as possible. This will ensure

maximum recovery and muscle

growth.

For athletes who need to main-

tain their current body composi-

tion, focusing on eating/drinking

before and after training is a

good starting point. Evaluate

over the course of the training

season and add/subtract feeding

opportunities as needed. You

may find the athletes may need

more or less, depending on the

type and timing of training ses-

sion.

For athletes who need to lose

fat, focus solely on the post-

workout portion of the Power

Hour. This is the best time to

ingest calories for optimal recov-

ery & results without sacrificing

fat gain with the extra ingested

calories before and during the

training session.

As always, check with your des-

ignated representative on staff

for appropriate NCAA compliant

nutritional supplements and

dietary questions. ♦

University of Tennessee Strength and Conditioning- Coaches Clinic

Date: March 2nd-3rd

Website and Registration: https://tennesseesportcamps.com/strengthandconditioning/coaches_clinic.php

Contact: Ron McKeefery- rmckeefery@utk.edu

The clinic focuses football programming on Friday with the annual plan split into four sections: in -season with Doug Davis, summer training

with Duane Carlisle, winter training with Ron McKeefery, and "block zero" with Joe Kenn.

On Saturday the clinic is designed to give the performance professional a solid foundation in the basic fundamentals of strength training,

speed mechanics and agility training. Leaders in the field of Strength and Conditioning will discuss cutting edge training protocols they use

when working with athletes of all ages and sports. The speaker lineup is as follows: Rich Lansky, Robert Dos Remedios, Loren Seagrave, Gray

Cook, Rob Taylor, and Ethan Reeve.

All registration information and a detailed schedule is available on the website. The clinic is sponsored by Hammer Strength with other con-

tributing sponsors of Power Systems, AAH, and Perform Better.

Here are a few tips to make sure your semes-

ter begins well.

1. Meet with the Sport Coach to discuss

expectations, standards of achievement,

disciplinary actions and leadership quali-

ties for the teams you train. Regardless of

what we want to think, believe or feel, it is

the Sport Coach’s team. Making assump-

tions in regards to these issues can lead to

major trouble in the future. Establishing

clear, concise dialogue up front will also

increase the likelihood that the coach will

come to you for perspective on team dy-

namics and include you in problem solv-

ing. When these high level conversations

take place, you are working to show your

worth.

2. Set high standards early with your ath-

letes and be consistent. It is much easier

to do this at the beginning of the semester

then to wait until you feel you are losing

control of the team. Despite what some

Leadership 101 Start the Semester off Right By: Andrew Althoff

may show on the exterior, athletes expect

and crave discipline.

3. Effectively communicate early and often

within your staff. Just as we set standards

with the athletes, we must know what we

expect out of ourselves and co-workers.

Understand your role within the depart-

ment so that you can recognize when

something is above your pay grade and

you can defer to your superiors. Use this

staff structure to take and give orders

accordingly within the hierarchy of your

department. The bottom line: follow the

orders given to you by your superiors to

the best of your ability and put others in a

position to succeed by delegating effec-

tively.

4. Keep the program design simple. It is

important to keep in mind that most ath-

letes are either coming off a break or a

long grueling season, and simplicity will

get everyone back on the same page and

build a good foundation for future devel-

opment. If you start with complex move-

ments or schemes you will not have any-

thing to progress to down the road. As

you advance through the semester,

choose your battles and make the changes

that are necessary. Do not change for the

sake of changing and keep in mind that if

you add something, then most likely you

will need to take something out.

5. Humble yourself. Do not believe that you

will always make the right decision. Read

quality books, reach out to other depart-

ments and exhaust all resources in search

of professional development. You should

be able to learn something from what you

read, people you meet and events you

experience. Putting these things together

over time will sharpen your sword and

lead to success.

Remember you have to start right to end

right! ♦

Nearly every program in America tests

vertical jump. Why? The usual answer is

that they want to see how explosive each

player is, or how powerful they are. The

person who has the highest vertical is go-

ing to be the most explosive; the person

who has the lowest vertical is going to be

the least explosive. If an athlete’s vertical

is increasing in every training cycle they

are getting more explosive, and if it is stay-

ing the same or decreasing, he is losing his

ability to produce power.

That sounds so simple, doesn’t it? What a

great way to track training.

However, I am going to be the bearer of

bad news: It’s not that simple. The verti-

cal jump doesn’t give you power. It gives

you some useful data to determine power,

but it does not give you power. If you are

Coach’s Corner “Power” by: Dr. Bryan Mann

monitoring vertical jump to determine

power, you’re a bit off the mark. Take for

instance a player who has moved to a big-

ger position. If an athlete has just moved

from a safety to a linebacker or from a

linebacker to a defensive end,, his vertical

jump has changed at every position. How-

ever, has he become less powerful over

time?

Often when someone mentions how many

Watts of power an athlete is putting out, a

strength coach thinks of a force plate,

which is very expensive, or the coach has

the great idea of hooking each athlete up

to the Tendo and entering their body-

weight and having them do a vertical

jump. The Tendo or Myotest, both of

which use velocity and bodyweight to cal-

culate power, are accurate and less expen-

sive than a force plate. But guess what?

They still cost between $500 and $1500

dollars.

There is something even simpler than the

Tendo and Myotest, and costs much less

money. Given that the acceleration of

gravity is a constant, time and velocity

would have to be the same for each jump

height (i.e. every time someone jumps a

height of 32 inches, he spends the same

amount of time in the air regardless of

weight). Acceleration, which can be gath-

ered from the jump, is used in combina-

tion with bodyweight to determine Peak

Power in Watts.

Understanding the variables involved, re-

searchers have developed equations to

calculate power based on their findings

from the use of force plates. One of these

researchers is Dr. Steve Sayers, Associate

Professor at the University of Missouri.

While at UMass, he developed what is

known as the Sayers Power Equation. This

equation is helpful for most strength

coaches who can’t afford or don’t want to

mess with all of the high tech and fancy

gizmos. There is one downside to the use

of this equation- it uses the metric system

[d@#! scientists and their need for inter-

national regulation (we’re the only coun-

try that doesn’t use the metric system)].

Jump height will need to be converted to

centimeters [jump height (in) * 2.54= jump

height (cm)] and bodyweight will be need-

ed to converted to kilograms [bodyweight

(in pounds)/ 2.2=bodyweight (kg)]. Here is

the magic equation:

Peak Anerobic Power in Watts = Peak Anerobic Power in Watts =

[(60.7*jump height in cm)

+

(45.3*body weight in kg)]-2055

For those who track all of their data and

keep it in some format, usually excel, the

Coach’s Corner “Power” by: Dr. Bryan Mann

determination of Peak Power in Watts is

the addition of one cell, but the infor-

mation it gives you is priceless. You can

now compare apples to apples. Who is

the most powerful person on the football

team? When someone changes body-

weight, you can determine if the athlete is

actually producing more power. Is his

ability to put out power increasing? Is it

decreasing? Does a need exist to improve

Rate of Force Development?

Now, before the calculation of power

looks to become an “end all, be all” to all

issues related to performance, realize that

this is just the beginning of comprehend-

ing the influence of your training program

on your athletes. There are many things

that power can be used for and many sim-

ple calculations give even more infor-

mation and clarification. Your quest for

the best strength and conditioning pro-

gram is no sprint or race. It is a journey;

and it is taken steadily one step at a time.

(Continued from Page 4)(Continued from Page 4)

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We’d like to wish all of our We’d like to wish all of our

readers a tremendous 2012!readers a tremendous 2012!

Change isn’t easy. If it was, political leaders

would be able to switch global policies over-

night, co-workers would stop getting the case

of the Mondays, and coaches would turn

around losing programs in one season. How-

ever, many people, especially leaders, fail to

analyze the entire situation to bring about

change. Here are a few review points from

“Switch” to help understand the dynamics

behind CHANGE.

To change individual’s behaviors, you’ve

got to not only influence their environ-

ment, but also their hearts and minds.

Change is hard. What looks like laziness is

often exhaustion from people trying to

change on their own.

If you want people to change, you must

provide crystal-clear direction. Don’t ex-

pect them to know the path. What looks

like resistance to change is often a lack of

clarity. Sometimes we forget they are

scared and cannot do it on their own,

especially at the beginning.

For optimal change, you need to do three

things: direct, motivate and shape the

Book Review “Switch” by The Heath Brothers Reviewed by: Adam Feit

path. Take charge of the situation, give

them reason or incentive to change, and

help them along the path towards the

ultimate endpoint.

Knowledge does not change behavior.

Find bright spots in the process of change.

A bright spot is simply finding what’s

working and how you can do more of it.

Ambiguity is the enemy of change. A suc-

cessful change requires a translation of

ambiguous goals into concrete behaviors.

To make the SWITCH, script the critical

moves, don’t just offer ideas or sugges-

tions.

Goals can provide motivation and ac-

countability for change. SMART goals:

specific, measurable, actionable, relevant

and timely. Black and white goals: all or

nothing. Prevail or perish.

When you’re at the beginning of change,

don’t obsess about the middle of the pro-

cess, because the middle is going to look

different when you get there (much like

an annual plan for strength and condition-

ing). Look for a strong beginning and a

strong ending and GET MOVING.

When you improve a little each day, even-

tually big things occur. Don’t look for the

quick, big improvement. Seek the small

improvements one day at a time. That’s

the only way it happens, and when it hap-

pens, it lasts.

As a leader, you’ve got to act more like a

coach and less like a scorekeeper. You’ve

got to embrace a growth mindset and

instill it in your team. Real change, the

kind that sticks, is actually more often

three steps forward and two steps back

than people think.

Seek out failure; it is optimistic. You will

struggle, you will fail, and you will be

knocked down. But throughout the pro-

cess, you’ll get better and you’ll succeed in

the end.

A character problem is often correctible

when you change the environment. Be-

havior is contagious. To change yourself or

other people, you’ve got to change the

environment.

Change isn’t an event, it’s a process. Script

the critical moves so you know where you

are going. Motivate. Make people feel

something. Break down the habit needed

to be changed to make it tolerable and

less overwhelming. Grow the people

around you and instill the growth mindset.

Tweak the environment and build suc-

cessful habits. Rally the herd and spread

the contagious positive behavior.

Chip & Dan Heath have another book called “Made to Stick.”

Be sure to check it out if you are a fan of “Switch.”