Benjamin Madrid Sport and Performance

Introduction: I design, implement, conduct and monitor strength and conditioning programs for multiple Olympic sport programs. I coordinate student athlete rehabilitation with sports medicine and assist with rehabilitation of injured athletes. I support education for student athletes about nutrition and supplementation, assist with coordination, maintenance, and staffing of weight room/strength facilities, assist in identifying and purchasing needed strength and conditioning equipment and assist in scheduling weight room training for the various athletic programs. I assists with administration of intern program which includes planning, supervising, and evaluating. I improve athletic performance which usually means improving athletes speed, strength, and power (although specifics vary according to athlete and sport). Conditioning coaches develop systematic training programs for both teams and individual athletes, often working in close association with coaches. This usually includes teaching proper lifting techniques, supervising and motivating athletes as they work out, and assessing their performance before and after the program. The nature of the conditioning program will vary depending on whether the sport is in season or not. During the off-season, conditioning programs can be quite rigorous. In season, conditioning programs tend to focus more on maintaining athletes' conditioning than on improving it. Conditioning programs also vary by sport and even by position within the sport. The second primary goal is to reduce athletic injuries. To that end, conditioning coaches often design regimens to strengthen body parts that are prone to injury in a particular sport. Andrew Moser, strength coach at Iowa State University, agrees, saying, "Student athletes can have a great training plan that improves their speed, agility, strength, explosiveness, etc., but if we can't keep them healthy and out there competing, then all of the training improvements don't help us." Thus to prevent athletes from getting injured during training, conditioning coaches must know the correct exercise and lifting techniques and be able to teach them to athletes. The conditioning coach also monitors athletes' general health, sometimes providing nutritional advice or referring athletes to a registered dietitian if they need more sophisticated nutritional counseling.