The Pushup, Interns, and Friday

I've got a new article posted that everyone can check out at Elitefts.com on the pushup.  I'm a big fan of the pushup and this article tells you why. 

What You Don't Know About the Pushup

We have a new crop of interns starting this week for the summer session.  In the next two weeks I'll be posting information on our internship programming as well as the olympic lifts.  We'll have before and after videos on the 5 kids that we have and their 8 weeks here at TCU.  Along with that I'll post some videos of the "fun" challenges that they'll get to participate in.  Here's our last group of interns fun! 

Intern Stew

Spring Fashion Show

This probably won't be one of those challenges but from time to time we like to have powerlifting fashion shows.  Here is one of our spring interns, Erin Johnston, on the left, along with one of our coaches, Missy Mitchell, on the right.  When we're not talking fashion, they're hard at work studying.  Jason Manikowski, our 2009 summer intern, and now GA, as well as Coach Mitchell, took the CSCCa certification test this May in Orlando.

Epic FAIL!

Although we haven't seen the results yet, we sure they both passed with flying colors.  If they didn't they won't be on the staff long. 

So with interns in mind I wanted to post a few tips to help make young coaches better coaches down the road. 

1. READ, READ, READ, and READ some more - No one is going to give you all the answers.  I tell our interns that what you learn will be up to you.  The more you read about training, nutrition, corrective exercise, recovery, etc. the more well-rounded a coach can become.  The first question I get is "What should I read then?"  Don't limit yourself to only one author or theory of thinking.  I believe in reading anything you can get your hands on.  It will either reinforce your current beliefs or help you understand why you may disagree with it and form a stronger opinion of something else. 

2. Create an exercise journal - One of the things I wish I would've started early was an exercise journal.  I didn't start doing this until after I was an intern at the University of Washington.  Having a journal with exercises listed by body part, or however you categorize it, will always come in handy.  You will forget more exercises in your career than you actually know.  There will be a time when you are tired of doing the same 3 scap exercises and if you have a list of all the exercises you've seen over the years you'll be in good shape.

3.  Ask questions about everything - When coaches are programming training for athletes or taking athletes through training sessions takes notes and ask questions.  It doesn't help anyone to copy and paste training programs across a broad range of athletes while not knowing a single reason why you're doing what you're doing.  Understand why a coach is training his athletes this way.  If it's because "I said so" then find a new coach to learn from. 

I hope everyone has a great weekend and wish the Frogs good luck in the Fort Worth Regional.