Blog Post - The Importance of Research and Understanding History of Strength and Conditioning
It has been a couple of weeks since I have done a post but this week I wanted to focus on some research in regard to the origins of strength and conditioning in sports. I have felt that most individuals don’t have a great idea of when and how strength and conditioning has evolved over a relatively short amount of time. In a book that I was reading, Bill Belichick referred to Boyd Epley as one of the first and Nebraska football being a pioneer in starting off-season training in the early 1970’s (Halberstam, 2005). Also in addition to this, more off-season training was occurring at the college level than at the pro level in football. Floyd Reese, an assistant coach in the Detroit Lions organization with Belichick, pioneered the first off-season training program for the Lions in 1975 (Halberstam, 2005). Strength and conditioning was something that started in professional/college football far ahead of baseball. So at this point baseball is far behind other sports like football etc. Here is an interesting article that I read pertaining to Epley and Nebraska Football. “The Strength of Nebraska”:Boyd Epley, Husker Power, and the Formation of the Strength Coaching Profession This article relates to strength and conditioning program development by describing the great strength and conditioning coaches that applied a systematic way of studying the field of strength and conditioning. Boyd Epley was the pioneer in advancing the utilization of strength and conditioning to enhance football performance and injury rehabilitation (Shurley & Todd, 2012). He worked through injury in his life and utilized strength and conditioning to rehab a low back injury. By doing this he initiated a string of events that allowed him to research and catalyzed others to research in the field of strength and conditioning. As a result of his own personal rehabilitation program he felt the effects of strength and conditioning and found benefit in the amount of time for recovery after injury. He also felt as if his body was stronger and more conditioned for physical activity than before the injury. During the late 1960’s and early 1970’s coaches and physicians alike believed that resistance training and strength and conditioning would muscle bound an athlete leading to reduced athletic ability (Shurley & Todd, 2012). Epley changed this perspective through numerous personal case studies on the campus of the Nebraska Cornhuskers. He was hired by Tom Osborn under the head coach football coach and athletic director Bob Devaney (Shurley & Todd, 2012). Nebraska assistant coach (at the time) Tom Osborn had seen him on campus on many occasions working out with football players and aiding in their strength and conditioning. Due to Tom Osborn’s amazing insight he decided to inquire about how Boyd Epley was training his athletes and hire him to be the team’s strength and conditioning coordinator. In his time as the strength and conditioning coordinator Epley started the great Husker Power Club weight-lifting traditions, he coordinated a network of strength coaches through The National Directory of Strength Coaches, and started a national weight lifting epidemic in sport by the late 1970’s (Shurley & Todd, 2012). Through the National Directory of Strength Coaches, he also created the first annual meeting of the National Strength Coaches’ Association (NSCA) on July 29th, 1978 (Shurley & Todd, 2012). He would become the unanimously voted president of this now very prolific association. Boyd Epley and others at this time worked very diligently to systematically research, publish articles, and collaborate to form a united front in reconstructing the strength and conditioning reputation. Without Boyd Epley and his leadership skills the field of strength and conditioning could have seen many more years of unapplied science to sport and competitive exercise events. References: Halberstam, D. (2005). The education of a coach. Hyperion, New York: Hachette Digital, Inc. Shurley, J. P., & Todd, J. S. (2012). "The Strength of Nebraska": Boyd Epley, Husker Power, and the Formation of the Strength Coaching Profession. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research , 26 (12), 3177-3188.
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