Notre Dame Strength & Conditioning Program discussion

[Veritate Duce Progredi]

It might be a good idea to have an ongoing thread for the S&C Program. We've had threads devoted to Longo, Balis, etc. Perhaps a central running thread to record our thoughts on the developments of this domain would be prudent.

We should get word on Landow soon. It sounds like he'll be more than a coach overseeing just football. Early report indicate he'll be in charge of completely redefining the strength and conditioning across the University. I would expect more assistant coaches becoming known names as they take a hands-on approach to maximizing time with the athletes.

In some of Landow's interviews, he suggests increasing staff size so player development can be individually-tailored because it's impossible to meet everyone's needs with a single program. He also talks about ideal body composition being dependent on one's skeletal system and the idea that X position should be at a specific weight could be a disservice to players who don't fit the prototype. He talked about hiring "snipers" who excelled at specific areas to help players who are in different phases: In-season vs out-of-season, Immediately post-injury, rehab, close to 'return to play', etc. I believe he'll be bringing a much-improved approach to building athletes at ND.

For Landow, he'll be able to test his ever-evolving theories and use the newest equipment to track results across a broad selection of athletes. He'll also have the ability to direct the updates/improvements to the training facilities that are reportedly imminent.

The could be the start of something very special at Notre Dame. Please let me know why my glasses may be plastered with blue and gold.

 

[irishjim]

As a football coach myself, I hope they bring in people that can motivate the athletes and get them to the breaking point. That's one thing successful coaches at other schools can do. The science stuff sounds good in theory, although nothing beats good ole fashion sweat, tears, and soreness. Think Rocky type workouts.

 

[Bluto]

As a football coach myself, I hope they bring in people that can motivate the athletes and get them to the breaking point. That's one thing successful coaches at other schools can do. The science stuff sounds good in theory, although nothing beats good ole fashion sweat, tears, and soreness. Think Rocky type workouts.

They could tackle bison instead of them stupid robots, then eat said bison at the training table. Totally sustainable closed loop training that could help restore the midwest prairie grassland ecosystem. Welcome to the future boys!

 

[Old Man Mike]

This new conditioning coach seems a bit of a different sort of bird. And he MIGHT be a futuristic sort of bird. One hopes that his individualized approach (which on some fundamental level MUST be the ideal) will "fit" the constrictions of the time and other demands of athletes pursuing college football and academics. Here are some (to me telling) quotes from him:

"[My philosophy] is about efficiency in making more athletes more explosive and faster, but also decreasing their likelihood of injury through doing things properly.

"I want to show everybody that it doesn’t matter who you are. I want to treat you individually. And that goes for the way I program – I program my athletes very specifically to what their needs are and what their goals are.

"If I were to bring in 10 athletes, I know that with all 10 of them that I can help them get faster based on the mechanical inefficiency that they have. So, at the end of day, it’s just rebuilding on what my philosophy is and that’s teaching the athletes, first of all, how to be better and how to be more efficient. I do a lot of video analysis and I say, ‘biomechanically, here’s what we need to do to be faster, here’s where we need to get the limbs, here’s where we need to put the force into the ground.’ All of those things, ultimately, lead to a faster athlete if they are able to grasp them.

"When we look at performance training, most people have this idea painted in their head of strength and conditioning. To me, performance training is a holistic approach – where we look at the development of the full athlete from speed, agility, power, strength, balance, stability, flexibility, conditioning – you look at all of those processes and you say, ‘How do you maximize those for each athlete given their sport or the position that they play?’ It’s just not putting a blindfold on and throwing darts. Again, we need to make sure from a mechanical standpoint that we are efficient, but from an energy system or a conditioning aspect, we’re efficient, as well. I see a lot of times where guys will go out to condition and they’ll run miles, you know, football players that will go run a mile. Well, that’s out of their domain of what their energy system, and the demand of their sport, is. Over time, we’ve gotten better at using science to justify our methods."

Now this says to me that he is not a "football" guy but rather a "each person is an different athlete" guy. Again, this philosophically is correct BUT can it be maximized in a large numbers/ short times environment? At a minimum, the ideas being thrown around of a massive amount of new personalized trainers seems required for this "holistic" approach, especially if ALL sports are engaged. If a training system had all the time and manpower in the world, this seems to be a correct philosophy. I have this "dark intuition" grating at me, that some aspects of older school training contributed to a kind of indomitable toughness that I hope does not get lost here.

 

[zbikowski88]

 

[stlnd01]

Well, then, I guess we're about to find out!

 

[CanadalovesND]

 

[Grahambo]

If he’s overseeing the university’s sports performance and will hire a more hands-on football S&C coach, I think this has a chance.

 

[Giddyup]

Grahambo throwing shade on a man who has dedicated his life to the craft and ascended. Lol. This board.

 

[calvegas04]

Best photo the guy had huh?

 

[Grahambo]

Grahambo throwing shade on a man who has dedicated his life to the craft and ascended. Lol. This board.

What I miss? He had an arguably bad tenure with the Broncos and hasn’t run a college program. It’s incredibly fair to question if he’s a good hire for the football team. I like the concept they’ve tossed out about him running the entire university’s sports performance program.

 

[BleedingGold]

What part of Cincinnati is Denver located in?

 

[Rizzophil]

So is he closing his shop in Colorado ?

 

[Giddyup]

What I miss? He had an arguably bad tenure with the Broncos and hasn’t run a college program. It’s incredibly fair to question if he’s a good hire for the football team. I like the concept they’ve tossed out about him running the entire university’s sports performance program.

He was an nfl S&C for five years. It’s not like some green horn coming in. Players are players pros or semi pros.

 

[Giddyup]

So is he closing his shop in Colorado ?

Heard Lou ferrigno is gonna watch the shop.

 

[dublinirish]