Oklahoma State University Athletics
Spring Football Confidential: Speed, Strength and Conditioning
March 05, 2009 | Cowboy Football
by Jordan Lindley
They are there every morning at 5:45 a.m. when the weight room opens and they don't leave until 6:30 p.m. when it closes. Working as hard as possible, the strength and conditioning coaches are there every day to shape and mold the student athletes at OSU.
“I always try to remind the athletes of the ultimate goal—winning a championship,” assistant strength coach Gary Calcagno said.
Rob Glass, the assistant athletic director for speed, strength and conditioning at OSU, is the head strength coach for the football team. Along with developing programs for football, he also oversees the other athletic teams in the weight room.
“My day-to-day schedule is never consistent,” Glass said. “It just depends on what part of the season we are in.”
While the seasons for football change, so do the workouts. Glass said the workouts for spring, fall, and summer are all different from each other.
“In the winter program we work on getting as big, fast and strong as we can. We also work on competitive toughness, team building exercises, team chemistry and trying to develop leadership,” Glass said.
In the summer, the coaches focus on individual positions and what they will need to be successful. In the fall, the workouts are scaled back due to the heavy practices and season games.
Each position on the football team requires a different weight and conditioning program.
“Our quarterbacks' workouts are different from our linemen and receivers' workouts,” Glass said. “To be successful in the game of football, each position requires unique things to be successful and they are not common amongst different positions.”
Although the athletes are there to work and become stronger, sometimes it is hard for the coaches to keep them motivated. Both coaches have developed ways to keep the intensity high at their weight sessions.
“I try to keep the sessions fresh and exciting by changing it up,” Calcagno said. “The most important thing is to be with them from start to finish and keeping the intensity level high throughout their workout.”
Glass uses the approach of getting to know his players first through a battery of tests and physicals so that he knows how they react to certain types of workouts.
“Every athlete is motivated in different ways, so you can't have just one cookie-cutter approach,” Glass said. “Every athlete has a different hot-button that motivates them, and I think it is my responsibility to try and get to know the kids and find out what that hot-button is.”
While the main purpose of strength and conditioning coaches is to get the teams strong and ready for season, the job of a strength coach has developed over time.
“A strength coach's role has evolved over the last 25 years,” Glass said. “Initially we were just strength coaches, now we deal with speed, flexibility, balance, and vision training. We wear a lot of different hats. There are a lot of things we do now that we didn't do 20 years ago.”
Along with speed and strength, the coaches also instill a sense of nutritional balance in their players.
“Nutrition and rest are two vital components that if you aren't getting enough, you can be predisposed to having an injury if you are neglecting that area,” Glass said.
Even though the coaches are there every morning and afternoon training the athletes, there is a lot more that has to go into a strength program.
“You have to have a good boss, a good budget to provide equipment and supplements, a good sized room to accommodate all the athletic teams, and a good staff that is open to communication,” Calcagno said. “I think we have all those things.”
To become a strength and conditioning coach, one has to go through a series of certification processes and exams to become certified.
“Initially years ago, there was the NSCA who had its first certification,” Glass said. “Now we have developed the Collegiate Strength Coaches Association where different levels have different criteria.”
In 2002, Glass was named a Master Strength and Conditioning coach by the National Conference of Collegiate Strength and Conditioning Coaches Association. Calcagno followed in 2008 receiving his Masters certification.
“There are only a few of those in the United States and you have to put in a tremendous amount of hours and years to achieve that level,” Glass said. “It is important to try and be as well-rounded as you can.”
Through all of the certification processes, both Glass and Calcagno enjoy their jobs and their teams. They both try to instill in their players a level of intensity and toughness, but Calcagno also tries to encourage something else.
“Letting each one of them know that I care about them as a person, not just as an athlete is important to me,” Calcagno said.
