Saturday, May 10, 2014

NSCA Oregon State Clinic

Today I had the opportunity to visit the Oregon State University and learn from some of Oregon's best strength coaches and an Olympic weightlifting coach.  NSCA (National Strength and Conditioning Association) offers many State Clinics to strength & conditioning coaches, personal trainers, and coaches on their training philosophies and Oregon's was held on the OSU campus.  Bryan Miller, OSU's head s&c coach was the facilitator for the clinic.

Oregon State's strength and conditioning facility

The day kicked off with the legendary University of Oregon's Jim Radcliffe talking about U of O's training principles.  Lots of his talk was about how to improve hip mobility with athletes and getting their muscles to work in synchronicity to be able to generate power.

 Jim Radcliffe, University of Oregon

Then US Weightlifting coach, Michael Conroy, talked about how to properly teach and perform the snatch and clean exercises.  These two explosive movements that can be very beneficial to athletes but can also be difficult to master.   The most beneficial thing I took from this presentation was how the barbell "should" move during the exercise.  A few great power point slides showed how some of the best Olympic weightlifters lifted the bar; keeping it behind an imaginary vertical line using some video analysis.

We were able to practice both exercises, and since I don't practice the snatch at all, I discovered that I don't have the shoulder mobility to execute it properly.  Some of the University of Oregon's strength coaches demonstrated the exercise with perfect technique and made it look simple.

Next we learned from Partick Ward how to properly collect data and how to utilize it with your athletes.  He has worked with many professional teams and has been able to help coaches get the most out of their athletes.

The University of Portland basketball coach, Brad Scott, shared his training principles and how he and he training staff lay out their off-season programs.

To wrap things up, Kyle Holland, Team EXOS - Special Operations, talked about how he trains his MMA athletes and some of the exercises he uses.



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