Once again, Michigan State does not disappoint. The MSU Spartans' 12th Annual Strength & Conditioning Clinic is a testament to the success and longevity of their head football coach Mark Dantonio. When Dantonio arrived back in 2006, following a successful stint at the Cincinnati Bearcats, he made personnel moves that retained head strength coach Ken Mannie and assistant Mike Vorkapich. With that move complete, Mannie and Vorkapich plowed straight ahead and even planned a strength and conditioning seminar to educate coaches, teachers, trainers and physical therapists on the intricacies of designing and implementing football and sport strength training programs. As word got out about the first clinic, the wheels began turning to have a second one. A short time ago, the 12th one came to an end and they are certainly going to plan more. In fact, Coach Vorkapich already has a couple speakers inked. The wide array of diverse clinic speakers that share their knowledge with the clinicians is one of the things that make this annual event huge. And, with clinic master of ceremonies, Ted Lambrinides, serving as the point man, things roll very efficiently. Ted has a wealth of information from both academic and field experience disciplines. He's a long time sport scientist who's become one of the leading experts on GPS player tracking data analytics for both NFL and Power Five collegiate teams. Dr. Ted, who completed his PhD work at Ohio State back in the 1980s, has become an multi-year cornerstone as emcee at the clinic, operating with smooth efficiency and is always available to share information during the breaks.
This year, Mike Vorkapich brought in a diverse group of high impact speakers. For one, Reno Saccoccia, spoke on developing a championship program, which he's done at Steubenville (Ohio) High School Big Red Football. The "Big Red" are really BIG in Ohio High School Football where Reno has built a perennial powerhouse program. Coach Saccoccia also happens to be Coach Ken Mannie's brother-in-law, so he probably gets access to plenty of football strength training program tips!
Coach Kevin Yoxall of TCU and Auburn fame, explained about running an ideal summer strength & conditioning program and that type of information is just the kind of thing that many of the clinic attendees wanted to gather.
Then, Bill Foran (Miami Heat), who is a strength and conditioning Hall of Fame inductee, told some interesting stories about his days as Michigan State's first graduate assistant strength coach. After a stint at Washington State, he then experienced some big success at the University of Miami Hurricanes.where he worked under Head Coach Jimmy Johnson. Bill came up with some changes down there, especially with their conditioning tests that . Then, he was courted by the Miami Heat and actually was hired by Billy Cunningham with just a little Wilt Chamberlain influence! He also got to work with their legendary head coach Pat Riley and had plenty of really good stories about his career with the Heat. He also drove home the point on these four things:
- Sleep
- Hydration
- Less Sugar
- Vitamin D
All good stuff! He followed that with some video of the Miami Heat in training.
That lead to the next clinic speaker from the University of Cincinnati, Brady Collins, a spirited and passionate strength coach who had a huge impact on football coach Luke Fickell's 2018 Bearcat 11-2 squad. This team was the surprise turnaround story of college football in 2018 and finished at #23 in the final rankings. Coach Collin's talk centered on his training mantra of 'relentless effort' and how the Bearcats, a team that finished its season with a huge victory over Virginia Tech in the military bowl, go about getting that accomplished. Brady has a good sense of the history of strength training for football and paid homage to the NFL's first strength coach Kim Wood, who saw the trainings' first priority as "to develop the raw material of the body". The Cincinnati Bearcat Director of Football Sports Performance also covered how to maximize and develop player potential and also taught some of the Cincinnati squat protocols and progressions. not a bad year for this knowledgeable. young strength coach.
The final speaker, Caleb Grummet spoke on self discipline and left us with the following thoughts:
1. Fight the good fight
2. Avoid complacency
3.Stay pure and avoid being watered down
4.Always know your WHY
In his closing remarks, Coach Ken Mannie wrapped up the clinic with some thoughts on a word that keeps surfacing by many of the speakers, and that's TRUST. It's a difficult thing to cultivate because a strength and conditioning coach needs a ton of it. Coaches not only need to develop trust with the athletes whom they develop, but they also have to strive everyday to have trust that flourishes among their staff and all of the sport coaches,as well. So, Mannie advised clinic attendees to:
- Learn as much as you can
- Separate yourself from the pack
- Work at your job like it's the only one that you'll ever have
- Love what you're doing
- Get well-versed in technology
- Develop professionalism: mannerisms, expertise, inspire people
NFL sports science & player tracking consultant Ted Lambrinides was again the MSU Clinic master of ceremonies
Steubenville (Ohio) High School Big Red Head Football Reno Saccoccia
Cincinnati Bearcats Director of Football Sports Performance Brady Collins
Lots of earned jerseys in this corridor
The Michigan Stater Spartans football strength training complex is second to none. They have it all
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