My 9 Problems With NCAA Strength & Conditioning Coaches 

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This video is like 50 years overdue

I played D3 football for 2 seasons at the age of 27 and 28 after getting out the army...when forced to do the “s&c coach’s blanket program” i would never make the gains(strength and speed wise) that i would when i would do “individualized” personal/positional programming...would come back after the summer with huge gains and theyd ask how i got them and id tell them “i threw away your program and got an individual one” haha they never enjoyed hearing that 💪🏻🏈🚒

I like how he becomes visibly more irritated the farther he goes down the list.

#9. School schedule sets up the rest of the student athletes schedule. They have class during the day so it’s either before or after the school day. Sport coaches don’t want to practice before school so it’s the weight room at 5-7am

This man is Joel Seedman’s worst nightmare...good job!

"Don't start before 9am" As a swimmer in the ACC conference, I have already trained 3.5 hours by 9am...cheers to yall sleeping

First one is so factual I’m a D3 swimmer I never had an injury until I started having 5am weights every morning, it’s just too early to get enough sleep and it leaves me taking naps all the time too

Dane, as a former power 5 football player(2016/2017), P5 S&C intern(2018), and now a HS strength coach in Oklahoma, I thought I'd share a few of my own thoughts and experiences on your list. Thankfully the staff I played and interned under had some great coaches that I was able to learn from, and continue to learn from now. First off, solid video, and I would agree as I've seen all of these issues in NCAA and even high school strength and conditioning. Number 6: I once heard a P5 football S&C coach tell his team that they weren't allowed to wear knee sleeves or weightlifting shoes because they aren't "weightlifters" and then go on to use many weightlifting movements in their training, which makes no sense at all to me. I also know for sure of two P5 football schools that perform all cleans, including max attempts, in straps. Mind boggling to me. Number 3: I see your point on the gadgets, but I also think if used correctly they can be very useful. I'm a big believer in tracking data(running speed/volume, bar velocity at times, force plates) and I believe that collegiate athletes are perfectly capable of benefiting from those tools. I believe that these tools can help the coach with programming, more so than the athlete knowing their bar velocity or what have you. Number 2 on your list drives me crazy as well, and I hate to admit it but I even have some close friends in the field that believe the olympic lifts are 'too hard to teach' and believe that sprints, jumps, or throws provide the EXACT SAME benefit. Number 1 just shows that it's often a 'who you know' field not 'what you know.' This can allow people who really don't know what their doing to get really high paying jobs at big school. Anyways, just my 2 cents. -Cole Moos

I'll never forget when I asked my coach if I can wear my adi powers and he kept saying they were coming. They never came and I'm still scratching my head as to why he didn't just let me bring my own when my old strength coach allowed it

My kid was picked on a little about his weight lifting shoes by his buddies this year. They learned quick when they heard those shoes “clack” on the floor, he was probably doing more weight than any of them. They have since started asking where they can get some.

Excellent presentation. I worked for 25 years as the Head S&C Coach with elite wheelchair athletes at a Big Ten University. I was the first traumatic spinal cord injured paraplegic to become a certified NSCA S&C coach. Our athletes had the highest standards of biomechanical evaluation of each lift and they were supervised by two or three certified coaches at all times. We were light years ahead of any other program in the world for wheelchair athletes. We were also ahead of the D-1 able-bodied S&C program on our campus in technical sophistication. Tried to talk training theory with the head S&C coach in the 1990s and he had no idea what I was talking about. Thanks again for your honesty. You are on point with all nine issues, especially the early morning workouts, shoes and periodization. Enjoy your work.

I’m an aspiring strength and conditioning coach (currently 21 years old) and I’m so glad I saw this video because it gives me confidence in myself because I had a lot of these thoughts beforehand and now I know I’ll be ahead of the other coaches. I’ll never understand number one why on most programs you see 4x8 squats at 60% and absolutely no warm up whatsoever. Sure, if you’re the first guy at squats you might get some time to hit the bar or maybe a 135lbs weight. But if you’re 60% is in the 250lbs range it’s LUDICROUS that you would have an athlete come in and immediately start hitting that for 8 reps. It blows my mind. So my solution for that would be increase the sets to accommodate for 30, 40, 50 percent sets for warmups. Additionally this would require fewer exercises which is another point you made so that there is more focus on specific movements. Additionally if I’m gonna have an athlete squat 250lbs for 8 reps I want them in squat shoes or even better if they want to knee sleeves and a belt (I don’t like belts for less than 80% range but it’s debatable by some I’m sure). I also can’t stand the complication of exercises. I don’t care what anyone says Olympic weightlifters are the best squatters. And some of the best Olympic weightlifters are Chinese. I have yet to see them throw bands and chains and all other kinds of crazy stuff on the squat bar and “mix things up”. Are these training methods affective? I would say to a degree depending on the level of the athlete. But like you said, if these guys are high school or collegiate level they need to focus on the movement itself. Let the NFL or pro guys teach them how to increase their strength after they’ve already maxed out their bodies by adding different modalities but it’s ridiculous to take an athlete fresh out of high school and say “hey bud go immediately into squats without a warmup in running shoes and also there’s bands on each side”. I know I’m naive and young and have a lot to learn but just being observant and researching I’ve already seen a ton of mistakes

Oh man, I totally agree. We had to lift at 6:00 a.m. when I was in College. I lost strength, couldn’t figure out why.

my routine is usually cardio/warm-ups/yoga in the morn. weights or hard runs afternoon. easier run and drills in evening.

A track and field/throws coach is usually the best strength coach IMHO. Great video!

I've had trouble with all of these problems, transitioning from 4 years as a pac-12 football player to a conference five one, I believe another problem that arrises especially with the periodization, is the fluctuation of coaching staffs. I went through 7 offensive line coaches in 5 years, 3 strength coaches and 3 different head coaches. Without consistency my teammates and I were constantly shuffled into new strength programs and it sucked.

#10 S&C coaches not listening to experienced "Olympic" sports coaches (swim, water polo, throwing, rowing, lax, etc.) who understand the needs of the sport better and probably had to develop their own strength programs early in their careers.

I run track at the University of Oregon, so I had to watch when I saw coach Feld in the thumbnail! As a team we work primarily with coach Radcliffe for S&C. Legend of a coach, love working with him.

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Great video. Another topic to discuss is the effect of high school coaches using a college level S&C program with their teams. I think this multiples the problems you discuss about 10 fold. You can't train a high school athlete like a collegian. They need a strong base.

Great video. The mention of exercise selection and not enough sets is something I see a lot. Young S&C coaches try and overcomplicate their programs.

I've been a strength and conditioning coach for 15 years and I'm in love with this

Man I had clients in high school say yeh 9am was perfect ... still sleep so this number 9 is on point at 3-5pm they’re on time and ready to go

Agree with most of this video, Dane. Thanks for posting. However, I think you need to meet some different strength coaches! There are some of us in the collegiate setting who are doing it right (what I would consider "right" at least). Also, important to offer a point of caution: it is unfair to judge anyone's situation unless you have met them and been to their facility and seen their day to day operations. As a young strength coach, I used to pass judgement on lots of coaches I thought were "dumb" or who I "was better than." However, after a decade as a collegiate strength coach (for all sports, including football at the power 5 level), I understand that no situation is perfect. And many coaches do not have control over many aspects of what you discuss (scheduling, equipment purchasing, etc) EVEN if they are the "director." Just my opinion as someone who has been a NCAA strength coach for 10 years.

I’m at a high school and I have 9 women’s bars 9 men’s weightlifting bars and 9 power bars. Ridiculous

'Too many gadgets' you have no idea how much this one annoys me. Develop a strong coaching eye first. Less sizzle more steak!

Lol I had literally 0 reason to watch this but it was still informative. Also I never knew that they make women's bars. I could see how it would easily help them!!

I’m not sure how the majority of NCAA weight rooms operate. I wrestled in college and Jim Kiritsy (now of Kennesaw) was my strength coach. Honestly, the only one on this list that was violated was the 5am workouts. I never felt 100% at that time and it interfered with rest of course. It was justified because it was a military school so getting the ideal time slots was harder than at a usual school. Otherwise, I feel we did it right. 2. We spent weeks learning the clean and the snatch instead of loading it up early. 4. We did use chalk though not straps As for the girl’s bar...I can’t speak for that nor did I know there was a difference. All in all, I feel like you would have approved We put great emphasis on mobility and correct movement which has stayed with me for life

Former D1 s&c coach (currently a high school s&c) #9. Student athletes are typically in class from 7:30/8am until 3-4ish, at which they go to practice. We train early do that we can get them done before breakfast hall closes. Not ideal but it's the way it is. #8-2: on freaking point #1. Take home packets typically don't reflect a program very well, most are written to be very basic as most kids don't follow it anyway, we just want them to do something. Always happy to see a guy or girl get a private coach during the summer, the packet is meant to be better-than-nothing

You referenced that Arkansas video when discussing early morning training-- I remember reading the comments on that video of ppl highlighting the lack of squat depth ( rightfully so) and people were essentially excusing the poor form - " tHeY aReN't pOwEr lIfTeRs" I am not a S&C Coach by any means but it seems like that proper mechanics should out weight the urge to hit a PR. Very good video Dane.

I couldn’t love this video more. High school coaches need to watch this. Thanks!

Great video! This explains a lot to people I’m only a 16 year old sophomore in high school and I can say a lot of strength coaches that I see or watch have these problems and it takes a lot of time, effort and patience to be a strength coach and everything has got be right if you want your athletes to be better stronger faster bigger you name it everything has to go right.

I had at internship at a power 5 school (not going to name) and there was lifter shoes, but ZERO periodization... I was fresh off my masters in strength and conditioning and everything I studied and experienced up to that point was thrown out the door.. I was truly baffled, great motivating coach.. but I didn’t agree with his philosophy on training at all.

I’m a retired D1 strength coach. Spent 40 professional years watching S&C go slowly down the shitter. It’s one guy after the other that thinks it’s about style rather than substance. They are predominantly self-aggrandizing circus acts pandering to the head football coaches and any media that want to hear what revolutionary content they have. A cursory search on social media makes it evident that these coaches are content being caricatures of themselves.

Ran D1 @ Indiana State the year we got a new AT, it led to the most hamstring pulls in school history just within a few months of her starting. We would lift and THEN go run somedays, did no power cleans, snatches, pulls, etc. Instead were busy..quarter squatting........ I want my experience back.

At most schools, especially a lot of mid majors, the 6am lifts are due to the students class schedule, on field practice times, and sharing of the weight room with other teams. And it’s definitely possible to have deadlifts, hang cleans and bench press on the same day. If coaches are doing daily undulating periodization, you might see a barbell clean deadlift as a warm up for the hang clean working sets, and the bench press could be power emphasis where they are moving the bar fast like .8-1.0m/s. You’ll often see hang clean pulls and rdl complexes together

as a D3 strength coach, I agree with about 90% of this....I have seen/heard some awful stuff coming from Power 5/Division 1 programs

I loved this video. As someone that's about to get into this field I didn't even know these were such prevalent issues. I feel like most coaches just do whatever because "it's what they know works". They just avoid the plethora of science that's out there.

As a highschool S&C I could not agree more.

let’s be honest, creating your own science based routine makes more gains than your school program will.

Watched every second of this video and I couldn’t agree more with all the points. The last few in particular are very important. In my opinion, they set kids back a ton. The funniest part of the whole charade is coaches will spend 10-15 minutes every session explaining complicated cone drills that you only do 4 reps of and having kids go from the weight room to the indoor and back twice but then miraculously there’s never a spare second in the whole year to talk technique. Coaches with big budgets are the worst. They’ll have guys maxing out on hammer strength single arm machines with tendo units attached but only squat the kids once a month

As a division 1 football player this makes so much sense. And it was always weird how coaches wonder why we have better days when our sessions are later or when our practices are later. It’s because we get more rest. Which I thought was common sense. And we never play games that early in the morning. And the workouts always somewhat feel random as well.

Shit man. I'm 18 and being a S & C coach is literally my dream job but where I'm from there really isn't much work and I'm so conflicted on what I should do in terms of what I study further on. Time shall tell I guess. Amazing content btw, earned a sub:)

Hey Dane, my number 1 is watching these college athletes be celebrated for hitting half and quarter squats! Room full of football players going nuts over a no rep. Drives me nuts when I’m teaching how to do a squat correctly in high school.

I was taught to clean using straps. The man who taught me was a Olympic hammer thrower/ power lifter. Never hurt myself. I always thought if you're concentrating on your grip you're not concentrating on your form. The bars are designed to roll freely as you move.

Been a CSCS for 5 years now and my school did a very bad job of teaching me oly lifting. I fortunately learned it from professional oly lifting coaches because the place I worked at wanted its coaches trained by the real deal.

Great video and great insights. I agree with some of the points made. On the other hand many strength coaches at the collegiate level don't have the backing of administration which doesn't allow for full autonomy of their own job. Scheduling being one of them. Unfortunately, I've also seen sport coaches put pressure on the S&C staff to quickly produce results which leads to a sense of urgency in the weight room not allowing the S&C coach to properly apply progressions. Additionally, the "gadgets" issue many times is also pushed down from the sport coach or administration itself. They'll buy the tech and expect the S&C staff to "figure it out." Many of the fundamental issues with college S&C begin at the NCAA level. Going from 8 hours to 20 hours in a week is more than doubling the workload on these athletes. We know and understand that a drastic increase in work usually leads to injuries. To conclude, I agree with many of the talking points. However, for this industry to grow changes have to come down from the NCAA. If they truly have the athletes best interest in mind you would have institutions where one S&C coach is responsible for 5-6 teams, and would be taking steps towards requiring institutions to move towards a High Performance Model.

Ayeee Wuz up coach herb… I played at arkansas… that guy knows what he’s talking about… he taught me a lot

As a new strength coach it's easy to doubt your own conclusions when you see more experienced coaches putting out confusing guidelines. But, as I watched this video, with each point I thought, "duh, that just makes sense. How can people not do this?" Seeing you make these points boosted my confidence just a bit, and will help me be more assertive when the time comes.

So true, I specifically remember high school football and track. During football coaches would write down the program out of their butt every session and no one would get stronger. Then I went over to track where we actually had structure and a program specific to throwing and everyone in football would ask how I got so strong while they were barely making any gainz during off season. Even during football season I would sneak off to the track weight room to actually get good work in.

I just did a year in a NAIA school (Keiser University) in the swim team and coming from europe the stregth training was pretty nice although I absolutly agree, that seldom it loked like the excersices were a little radom, but in most sessions the structure were clear and there was a clear periodization. Something that blow me away, was the equipment, that we had. It was all basic, so no chains or something similar, but bars that were super grippy and chalk and dumbells that were heavy enough. This made a huge difference too me. Unfortunutaly the swimming practise were the exact oppposite, but the stregth training was great. Now I am going to a D1 P5 school (TCU) and on the recruiting trip I saw all the gadgets you metioned. We will see how that is going🙂. Thank you for the video

I am currently a college football strength coach working at a Power 5 school. I agree with some of the points you make but you must realize that every situation is different. I played D3 football and have worked at multiple schools at the FCS and FBS levels. AT THE PLACES I HAVE WORKED AT Training times are usually dictated by class and practice schedules Chalk has always been available for use Straps have only been used to help athletes get into a better front rack position on front squat I have worked at multiple schools with oly lifting shoes for athletes We do not just slap exercises in a program for the sake of doing them We methodically structure sets, reps and intensities based on the sport, time of year and needs of the individual athlete The "fancy" tools are used on more advance/mature athletes and are as recruiting tools to bring in highly recruited players

The thing is if you are playing a D1 sport you have been lifting since 15 or 16 I’ve been lifting since 14 so 18 or 19 year olds have been lifting for years

promote this message more often. its crazy how much bs skates by

Well done🤙💪

I ran track at the NAIA level and we had 6 AM workouts my freshman year. We didn't have them my sophomore year and my performance improved significantly.

Good stuff. I a get athletes coming home or new athletes in summer where we train and I'm blown away with lack of technical work #1. Also random lifts and conditioning which looks beyond what they need and more likely breaks down the body. Also agree on sets. I ALWAYS make my athletes do 40 to 50% of their max of chosen lift of that session and do warmup of 2 sets of 5 to 8 reps. Then we do 5 to 10 more sets depending on goal that day. Keep it up. Love the info

Absolutely straight to the point. Congratulations

Agree with all 9. My goal is to make the athletes better athletes. If we are throwing exercises together thats called a work out. Any one can do that. You need to teach motor skills that ladder up to sport skills and in between there are biomotor abilities that enhance sport skills. The number one thought should be whats the end goal in mind. Start there- work back to where they are now. Coaching and training is an investment - an investment in development.

“Women’s lifting bars”?? Been lifting, in gyms, D1 program 40 years and have never heard of women’s bars.....

Im far from a D1 athlete but if college is anything like highschool football half of it is to kick your ass and increase mental and physical "toughness." There's certainly a sense that the more it sucks the better it makes even if its far from efficient or on paper beneficial training.

"It's about equality," says he talking about different bars

That passion got me subscribed

I love Dane, but he has contradicted himself. He says here that power cleans, bench press, and deadlifts shouldn't be in the same training session, but I've heard him say multiple times that a power clean and bench press can be in the same training session, especially in-season. I know he's not a huge fan of deadlifts.

Thank you coach! Would you consider publishing some videos on ‘models’ for typical exercises e.g. squat, DL, clean etc?

Man our highschool coaches we are there 6:20 and do high pulls, power cleans, squat and bench in a workout and do that 3x a week. Doesn’t make sense to me at all. When we went to quarantine I was lifting a lot more and I was doing one compound lift a day and I was isolating muscle groups more.

Awesome video, love the passion expressed here.

I’m an S&C GA right now and this is spot on! A couple notes: I still think VBT can be valuable for younger athletes, but not so much for programming purposes. I think ANY athlete can benefit from instant, objective feedback because it drives competition and (hopefully) max intent. But overall, I think it makes sense to separate kids by level. Maybe the “top” level gets to utilize some of the fun gadgets while the weaker kids just focus on getting stronger and mastering technique. If they want to use the fun gadgets, they better get strong quick!

2:34 I could’ve swore that was Elliot Hulse at first lol

Rules 8 and 3 I think require a lot more elaboration and definition. There would be some realistic times where if you a run a high volume model you would want those high exercise count depending on the sport, athletes and other constraints. As for rule 3 I think you should clarify that significantly because sometimes those gadgets are incredibly helpful and powerful especially during peaking for performance or if you are dealing with over trained athletes. Also curious if you have some research you are referring to that would support your claim because velocity is velocity no matter when velocity occurs throughout the life time.

Too many gadgets - couldn't agree more. Either it's fancy tech that just interferes with the flow of a training session or it's an attraction to every new certification to put more letters behind your name on linkedin. I work for a pro sports organization and we have a lot of gadgets. Are some of them nice to have? Sure. Are they essential? Absolutely not. When I use some of this stuff, my reaction is always "ok, now what?". Most teams get the gadgets to "keep up with the Joneses" and convince management their jobs are valuable.

We've got the same problems in Mexico city. Thanks to remind it. I hope some coaches and athletic directors keep in mind it.

Thought about this video today. Guy in the next rack is high hang powercleaning like 225 with the usually splitting tendancies and a lot of swing, moves on to squat. I was talking to a guy who had asked me to spot his squat, reasonably strong dude doing like 455 x2 but cutting it really high, way above parallel, pretty much a quarter squat. He mentioned fighting the urge to go higher and I said I wasn't sure since he was pretty high and I felt full depth squatting had a lot of benefits to work in. He says that he's playing college football and that when he started he squatted ass to grass and his coachs had actively discouraged this because they want them to "get out of the hole" faster. All I'm thinking is it's easy to get out if you're never in it. Nice dude but it did make me wonder about training habits at a lot of schools and things that went against what I've picked up about sports performance as an interested amateur.

on the early morning workouts - it's a simple consequence of maintaining the illusion that they're students, and trying to squeeze them into a normal first year student's schedule. Those first year mandatory class schedules are usually very inflexible and most run 9-3 every day. The ball coach sure as hell isn't going to wake up and run a 5am game practice, so he gets the afternoon, and the students can't lift when they're in class, so S&C gets squeezed into the early morning. Even if Juniors and Seniors have more flexible schedules, you need the whole team to practice together, so everyone is fixed to the freshman/sophomore schedule constraints. Makes sense, except that it makes no sense.

Holy shit I’ve found my spirit animal.

Great job Dane love the list is there a good time to talk to you about a couple of things would love to hear your thoughts

Good Video to Start out with Oversight so I don`t have to Make The Mistakes. Takes too long to Heal

I think some coaches get so wrapped up whats next that they fail at the basics. A 'needs analysis' would clear up the issue with exercise selection and sets. Early morning training is a mental game to push the athletes but that isnt the job of a S&C coach . The ultimate goal is to help them reach their full potential in sport performance while designing a program that will reduce the chance of injury. There is no excuse for lack of periodization. A needs analysis by position and competition period tells the coach what needs to be accomplished and when.

This is good stuff.

There is a huge problem with s&c coaches, how do they even get there certification, do they take classes and say here u go here’s ur certificate, I think that’s the problem there’s not enough of em that have actual real experience with heavy weight and good technique

The biggest issue at the collegiate level is time. You are restricted by the academic schedule, practice hours, ncaa legislation, and the sport coach. These restrictions lead strength coaches to not teaching Olympic lifts or other movements that require a great deal of practice so they can perform them with technical proficiency.

#8 Fucking right, couldn't`agree more Dane

Great stuff man, awesome vid!

Dane, great video, I think I might be able to provide some nuance to the topics. Most of your issues are related to football S&C and I'd agree with you in a lot of these areas for the football community. As far as equipment and scheduling, those are big issues we are constantly battling admin and coaches with. I think the only thing I've ever told athletes not to wear are lifting gloves. I don't think the "gadgets" typically dictate training at the college level, my own experience has seen them used as tools for readiness measures and for adherence to the training goal. If you've experienced a lot of these same issues outside of football S&C I'd love to discuss.

Have you ever worked in college athletics? It doesn’t seem like it based on your issues. Also it doesn’t seem that way cuz of how much you love Olympic lifting for athletes. Athletes who Play team sports don’t need to Olympic lift.

Great video, but why you gotta put Ben Herbert on blast? That’s one dude who truly knows what he’s doing (yes, I know you were probably just looking for public domain video clips, but still…)

So would you disagree with Joe Kenn's Tier System? He talks about Having a Total, Lower, Upper approach embedded in each day of training with tier 1 being the focus while still training different movements after.

could you do a video on support belts like lumbar and so on. I had a double hernia 10 years ago, got mesh implanted but I still want to lift safely.

After watching a large number of both D1 strength programs content online as well as a bunch of HS content...I am confused as to how on earth the field has regressed so much in 35 years. I remember when it was pretty straightforward...take the stud athletes focus on making them stronger and if you keep them fast or make them a bit faster good to go. Now it seems like a whole lot of BS and politics and it seems the HS coaches visit a D1 school and immediately decide really bad form hang cleans and squats way above parallel are suddenly the best thing in the world.

About the starting to early thing, what if your getting adequate sleep like 8-5am or 9-6am?

Great stuff coach.

Awesome video

Great video can you do one for high school S&C

I think the main problem is that there are so many athletes that need to get into the weight room every day. 30+ at a time every hour. Then adjust for school and practice schedules which are not consistent and you get early lifting times, lack of specialization, and inconsistent routines.

Great stuff coach! Can you shed some more insight on the whys for tru use of woman’s bars

What types of bars are the Olympic Women's Weightlifting using?

I agree completely I have been training high school since 2008 in Florida I have to correct them

Right on

Coach...great video!! I have been a strength & conditioning coach for 20 years or so now. I have been at the Youth Level, HS, Power 5, Military, and OTC and I must say, you hit on so many great points. In regards to straps with snatch variations, am I correct in saying you "do" recommend them? I ask because I don't utilize them in the case a rep is missed. Student athletes are taught how to "miss" a rep, but I'd rather not risk it. Could you share with me your thoughts please. Thank you!! Glad I came across your video/channel.