Tim: I know you are currently the lead strength and conditioning coach at Bournmouth University. Would it be possible for you to let the readers know a bit more about your strength & conditioning background?
Russell: I have always been into training but my career in S&C began properly at Durham University where I rowed for the Uni boat club. We received S&C as part of the programme and I always loved it. Towards the end of my time rowing I found I actually enjoyed the weights more than the rowing so I new I wanted to get into it as a career. I spent a year at Durham working in the gym under Brendan Chaplin (a good friend of yours) as an assistant coach. This was a great experience that helped cement my love for coaching. I then moved to Bournemouth Uni where I worked mainly admin but coached part time while I gained my UKSCA accreditation and started powerlifting. The next year I became the full time coach and am loving it so far.
Tim: Having experience of major strength and conditioning programmes both in Britain and the USA, have you experienced any major differences in the approach to the profession between the two countries?
Russell: The major differences between S&C here and in the USA are probably the scale of the programmes and the opinions of the general population as to it's necessity in a sporting programme. There are maybe 5 Universities in the UK with more than 6 or 7 olympic platforms in their gym, in the USA there are dozens, all of which seem to be fully kitted out with a huge assortment of equipment. The reason for this scale of the gyms is the way people feel about S&C: it is seen as vital to sports performance and therefore the numbers of athletes being coached is huge. Over here there are many athletes that train hard but for many more it can be a hard sell to both athletes and coaches to get them in the gym lifting instead of directly playing their sport. But over there more athletes are keen and driven to get stronger and faster and not attending S&C is basically a quick path to being dropped.
Tim: I know you are currently working with athletes and teams across a variety of different sports. Are there any particular problem areas you have found that most athletes need to work on, irrespective of their sport?
Russell: I work with a variety of athletes from those who have just started playing competitive sport with no training background to elite performers, the most common issue I have seen is weak glutes and poor posture. There is a huge number of athletes who don't ever use their glutes to extend their hips, they use the hamstrings and spinal erectors. This leads to tight and injury prone posterior chains. The major emphasis in my programme is glute activation and strength work.
Tim: As the readers on this site are primarily concerned with developing their speed, I would love to hear your thoughts on how to develop this aspect of the strength and conditioning programme.
Russell: Speed is great to have but acceleration is more important for most of our team sports, so we work on the ability to get from 0-60 and back to 0 again in all directions. We use the olympic lifts to develop general explosive power and then we use a programme based on Coach Dos's CHAOS sports speed to work on reaction, commitment and agility on the field.
Tim: Where can the readers go to find out a bit more about you?
Russell: Readers can go to http://www.conditioningcentre.com/to see videos and info about myself and my programme or they they can find me on twitter or facebook. I have also just had an article on my internship in California published in this quarter's Professional Strength and Conditioning Journal.
TIM EGERTON STRENGTH AND CONDITIONING CONSULTANCY
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