A Philosophy of Strength and Health

Me with Andrea Hudy after a Kansas men's basketball practice during the 2014 NCAA Tournament in St. Louis. Andrea is the only female strength coach of a Division I men's basketball program and Assistant Athletic Director for Sport Performance at Kansas. Some recent events have prompted me to think seriously about things we can do to positively impact the number of women in coaching -- sport coaching and performance coaching. First and foremost was my own departure from US Ski & Snowboard, where I was one of two women on the athletic development staff, one of only four total female coaches in the entire organization and one of a very few women to work in high performance in the US at the NGB level. What was I thinking by leaving? I was thinking lots of things. I knew there was a high probability my position would be filled by a male coach (it has been-- and I'm super supportive of this young man's ability to have a tremendously positive impact with all...

I think the art of programming --- the selection, order, dosing and progression of movements --- is becoming a lost art. It seems to be more of a "plug and play" kind of activity rather than a craft. A good program, and the process of implementing that program, will be much more than the sum of its exercises. The use of software makes it easy to copy and paste.  Software makes every workout look basically the same. We pick from the list put the "power" exercises here, the "strength" exercises here and the "plyo" exercises here. Is this activity inherently different than writing --shaping--- a workout on a blank piece of paper or even white board? Are the relationships of the movements within a workout and among the various other days of the workout plan easily comprehended? The use of phones and tablets to display exercises means they are more likely to be displayed one at a time, possibly losing context of how they are connected to oth...

I've been ruminating on this subject for the last four years. My goal with this post is to spark some thoughtful discussion on the use of the RDL in performance and rehab programming. Some background. Prior to coming to US Ski & Snowboard in May of 2014, I'd been working in private practice for 10 years, primarily with high school basketball, volleyball and swimming athletes. In my world, the RDL was a highly advanced movement, reserved as an accessory training movement to prepare the body to efficiently move the bar from below the knee to the power position at mid-thigh in cleans and snatches. Because we did full range of motion squats (bodyweight, front, back), full range of motion hexbar deadlifts, step ups and lunges in varying directions, amplitudes and speeds, skips and all kinds of other movements, I did not see any reason for this group of athletes to do RDLs, Good Mornings or any other resisted isolated hip-hinging movement. Hamstring work wasn't isolat...