Fifteen years ago most college athletic teams spent very little time in the weightroom. It was largely the domain of the football team and a few individuals that saw the benefits of spending time there.
Today, every one of the 17 athletic teams at the University of Dayton lifts and conditions year round. Unfortunately, so do most of our opponents. In the past a team could gain an advantage just by being in the weightroom. Today, they have to outwork their opponents and our strength and conditioning staff has to make sure the programs they are following are better designed and executed than those of the schools we compete with.
The UD Strength and Conditioning staff consists of three full-time, certified strength and conditioning specialists, a part-time strength coach and several volunteers. Mark Thobe, MS, CSCS coordinates the strength and conditioning efforts out of the
Olsen Athletic Performance Center.
Injury prevention is a primary goal of all UD strength and conditioning programs. Toward this end the strength and conditioning coaches work closely with our staff of Certified Athletic Trainers and team physicians. Associate Head Athletic Trainer, Nate Seymour, is also a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist. Student-athletes that are strong and fit are generally less likely to become injured and recover faster if they do get hurt. Our programs also incorporate training that develops good balance, coordination, joint stability and other factors that can reduce the chance and severity of injuries.
Our lifting programs are based on free weight exercises such as the Olympic lifts (clean, jerk, snatch, etc.) and traditional exercises such as squats, dead lifts, bench, chins, etc. We implement all of these elements in order to create and maintain overall balance.
Our conditioning efforts are designed to meet the specific needs of each team. Since most of our sports involve short distances repeated over and over we spend a lot of our time training in a similar fashion. Aerobic exercise provides an important base for all this conditioning. We spend most of our conditioning time building acceleration, deceleration, speed, the ability to change direction quickly and to recover from all this in a very short period of time.
Whether it is done on the competitive surface or in the weight room, all training imposes stress on the body. With the added strains of college life it is critical that student-athletes eat a healthy diet designed for an athlete. Proper nutrition will boost physical development and athletic performance. Our full time strength and conditioning staff members are trained in nutrition and often work with student-athletes to help them learn how foods and the even the timing of their eating can affect their bodies. We also bring in outside nutrition experts from time to time to work with individuals, teams, and to do special presentations to larger groups.
