Blake Vajgrt. Concordia University, Nebraska. C/o Coach Amy Harms. 800 N. Columbia Ave. Seward, NE 68434

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1 Blake Vajgrt Concordia University, Nebraska C/o Coach Amy Harms 800 N. Columbia Ave. Seward, NE 68434

2 I completed my internship in the Department of Strength and Conditioning at Concordia University, Nebraska. Concordia University was established in 1894, but the strength and conditioning department is relatively new in the school s life. Coach Amy Harms became the Director of Strength and Conditioning in Prior to her receiving this position all sports teams relied on their coaches to develop and implement strength and conditioning programs for the respective sports. While some teams at Concordia still operate in this manner, Coach Harms has centralized athletic programming for numerous teams including men s and women s soccer, men s and women s tennis, women s volleyball, women s softball, and women s basketball. The Concordia Strength and Conditioning Department provides programming backed by scientific principles of training. Programs focus on free weight, multijoint movements, and fundamental motor patterns to help train athletes for the forces and speeds they will experience on the field or court. In my role as an intern, and in observing Coach Harms an important duty of the department is also to provide information to athletes about proper nutrition and recovery, which will assist their gains they work hard to produce during training sessions. During my time as an intern to the Director of Strength and Conditioning, I was able to function in a strong but limited role as a strength and conditioning coach. In the early portion of the internship, I mainly observed Coach Harms take athletes through training sessions. As the semester progressed, I eventually became a lead coach on training days. By the middle of the semester, I had implemented and was the head trainer for the program I had designed to use Concordia s softball team. I spent a majority of the time during this internship in coaching and assisting Coach Harms with training sessions. Other duties of this internship were to read strength and conditioning literature and share oral reports with Coach Harms during the week. I gained valuable experience in athletic testing, as I helped administer testing to several teams

3 throughout the semester. Test protocols included the pro agility, 10/30/40 yard dash, broad jump, vertical jump, and 300-yard shuttle. This experience will be extremely valuable for the future, as objective and reliable testing serves a gold standard to measure progress in a strength and conditioning program. A final task of mine during the internship was to assist in general weight room supervision and maintenance. This included clean up of equipment, machine maintenance, and assisting weight room users in their needs during workouts. Coaching is an art form, and it needs to be developed in practice. I feel I came into the internship with a good working knowledge of the technical aspects of strength and conditioning. Being book smart about the field is one thing, but the ability to coach and get athletes to move the way they are supposed to be is a completely new aspect of being strength and conditioning coach. This internship gave me experience into the skills of coaching. It forced me to learn concise communication and effective cueing of movements. I developed better relationship skill with peers and learning to take charge of groups during training sessions. I learned to use new equipment to me such as the vertimax, which is a piece of equipment used to train for explosive power in the lower body. I have participated in a linear-sagittal plane sport in college with track and field. Thus, I do not have that much exposure to methods of multidirectional training. This internship gave me experience in lateral and multidirectionalbased movements and drill. Without this experience, I would be hindered as a strength and conditioning coach because almost every team sport involves these components. To be successful in preparing athletes for the demands of the sport, I will need to utilize these styles of drills, and the exposure I gained will help me do so.

4 The Walz Human Performance Complex weight room and field house almost became like my second home during this internship. I spent most of my time at work in these facilities. Built in 2009, these facilities are top of the line and provide a solid framework of equipment for a strength and conditioning coach to work with. The weight room has eight multifunctional lifting racks that can facilitate every exercise from a bench press to a front squat. During the internship, much of the athlete s work was done in these racks. The racks are centered in the middle of the room, which allowed me when I was a coach to observe multiple athletes at the same time. Towards the end of the room are two Olympic lifting platforms. Along the east wall of the weight room are the dumbbell racks. The north end of the weight room is an open space where, I would have the athletes warm up, foam roll and stretch prior to and after our sessions in the weight room. The field house at the Walz holds a 200-meter indoor track as well as a multipurpose area within the track infield. I utilized this open area to perform agility and speed drills with the athletic teams I was able to coach. The openness of the field house also allowed us to perform medicine ball throws, which assisted in developing work capacity and power in the athletes I trained. The field house served as the main location for the softball team s linear speed day. Baptism by fire is a cliché statement but for the field of strength and conditioning it is a fitting one. During my time as an undergraduate student, I have taken multiple classes that gave me a working framework of what it is like to be strength and conditioning coach. HHP 410 Essentials of Strength and Conditioning and HHP 270 Laboratory Techniques are the classes that gave the most practical experience prior to the internship. HHP 385 Exercise Physiology and HHP 395 Biomechanics also provided the theoretical and scientific knowledge of how the body operates when exercising. These courses were a great help in helping to understand the

5 demands strength and conditioning places on athletes in a program. That being said no course work could prepare you for what you will face in the strength and conditioning field. Internship specific training included planning time with Coach Harms. During this time, she instructed me how she goes through and sets up strength and conditioning programs. It was hands on practicum of needs analysis and fitting what the department has to offer in terms of equipment available. I was trained for coaching first by observation. I watched Coach Harms take athletes through workouts and then progressively came more and more into an actual coach role. The training objectives were met in that I was given the necessary tools to coach and develop programs. During the internship, I struggled most with the large group aspect of coaching athletic teams. Athletes come to Concordia with all different backgrounds and experience levels in strength and conditioning. I had difficulties with being able to coach all the athletes the same considering their different ability levels. When taking athletes through workouts, some need more attention than others do. Another difficulty with large groups is determining how much coaching or instruction is needed for each workout or exercise. Both of these problems were solved by a development of concise communication. I am still learning but have came along way in my ability to say just enough without saying to little. I learned effective cues, while developing an eye for what needs to be corrected and what does not. A key to keeping large groups interest is to chose your words wisely and use terminology that the teams understand. For example, a common movement pattern in strength and conditioning is the hip hinge. Instead of saying hinge your hips, I learned to use push your butt back as cue to athlete to get them to move correctly.

6 Women s softball was given to me during this internship. I was responsible for developing a six week periodized program for the team and in charge of its implementation. I feel that the successful completion of this program was my major accomplishment during the internship. The six weeks cause me to grow the most because I was placed in the head coach s role. I learned what it takes to be in charge of all the volume and intensity you need to place to get an athlete ready for competition. Taking over and implementing a program is not something you merely construct in five minutes, and take two minutes to think it over before you take athletes through it. A sound program takes days to develop. Once it is made, it is not set in stone. I learned a good strength and conditioning coach must always be willing to adapt to the needs of the athletes. I constantly made tweaks to the program or workouts depending on the status of the athletes or the equipment and space that was available. This taught me to have flexibility while on the job; something I know will be extremely valuable for the future. Coach Harms and Concordia s Strength and Conditioning Department, I believe did a strong job in developing my skills for a future career in the strength and conditioning field. She was always positive in her feedback and was able to give constructive criticism that built me up rather than tear me down. I could tell she cared a great amount for her athletes and also my success and learning as a future strength and conditioning coach. Strength of this internship is the ability to work hands on with many athletic teams. 85% of this internship consisted of hands on experience coaching. This experience is invaluable, because one can know the knowledge but if he/she is unable to coach, ultimately he/she will fail. I would recommend this internship to future students based on the intimate nature of the program. Not only does the intern get the chance to develop his/her skills but also develop relationship with peers and appreciate the amount of effort that goes into developing a successful athletic program.

7 After completing this internship, I know that a career in the strength and conditioning field is where I want to go. I had to get up early in the mornings to coach but for every cold morning I rode my bike and lost moments of sleep, I knew this is what I wanted to do. Coaching was refreshing and made me remember why I first became passionate in strength and conditioning. I enjoyed every moment of coaching, and I learned almost nothing could make me smile more than one of our athlete s accomplishing their goals.

8 Name Order Exercise 1 st Set 2 nd Set 3 rd Set 1. Power Shrug (3 x 3) 2a. DB Incline Press (4 x 6) 2b. Front Foot Elevated Split Squat (4 x 6) 3a. 1 Arm Bentover Row (4 x 6) 3b. Nordic Leg Curl (2 x 6) Core Work 4a. Shoulder Touches 40 reps 40 reps 40 reps 4b. Bottoms Up KB Walk Six times (3 each Weight Used arm) 4c. Bird dogs from hands and knees off ground 2 x 30 seconds each arm Monday - CNS Day Warm Up Cone Drills and Hops Timed circuit for 20 minutes (should be around 4 to 5 rounds). Full recovery between exercises to allow for greater power production and intensity on each exercise. Broad Jump (3 repetitions) Offeset Planks (5 seconds each side) Clapping Push Ups (3 repetitions) DB Jump Squat (3 repetitions with around 20-30% bodyweight 15 and 20 pounds) Medicine Ball Slams (3 repetitions with 6 or 8 kilogram ball) With progressions each week, we will add time to the circuit or increase weight to the jumps. So week two could 22:30 and so on Tuesday Linear Speed Day Warm up (30 yards) Walking exaggerated march Cradle Walks Toy Soldiers Quad walks Skips with arm circles (jog back) Skips with scoop and reach (job back) Skips with front knee grabs (job back) High Knees (job back) Line the Heel (job back) A Skips (job back) Backpedal (job back)

9 3 x 30 yard build-ups Work Sets 2 x 10 yard with seconds rest 2 x 20 yard with seconds rest 2 x 30 yard with seconds rest For the weeks progression add to 20 s first then to 30 s possibly Thursday Med Ball Work and Agility Drills Warm up Cone Drills Walking alternating lunge Exaggerated marches Backwards cowboys Cradle Walk Side Slides Karioca Lateral Jump Shuffle High Knees Butt Kicks Fast feet mirroring partner (2 groups for 20 seconds) x 4 Mirror partner catch up (2 groups for 20 seconds) x 3 Chops pro agility on volleyball court (Feet chopping and on the drop of the ball they go 6 go at a time so about four groups 5ish seconds works with seconds rest between trials) x 3 Medicine Ball Medley (4 sets with 90 seconds rest) 4 x squat push throws 4 x overhead throws with a step (four by each leg) 4 x rotary throws (four by each side) 6 x medicine ball slams Groups of three one partner will go while the other two rests for progression add sets

10 Friday Strength Day Name Order Exercise 1 st Set 2 nd Set 3 rd Set 1. Power Shrug 2a. DB Bench Press 2b. Barbell Front Squat 3a. Bent Knee Inverted Row 3b. 1 Leg Glute Bridge on Sm. Box Core Work 4a. Shoulder Touches 30 reps 30 reps 30 reps 4b. Bottoms Up KB Walk Four times (2 each Weight Used arm) 4c. Bird dogs from hands and knees 2 x 40 seconds each arm

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