The science behind sports
I live in a world of science; I am constantly surrounded by scientific literature and conversation. To be honest with you... I absolutely love it.
Not only am I the coordinator of the Alberta Sport Development Centre at Medicine Hat College, I am also a Science & Health faculty member at Medicine Hat College, and because I am completely crazy, I am also pursuing a PhD at the University of Victoria. So it would make sense that I would expect to see science based approaches when it comes to the areas of athlete development.
The Alberta Sport Development Centre at Medicine Hat College has some of the most qualified, scientifically inclined staff in the business. Everyone who is staffed by our centre has a scientific approach to their craft.
This is not the case in all fields of athletic development! Many “qualified” fitness professionals are not using a scientific approach when it comes to training athletes. I actually was at one point in time employed as a NCAA division I university assistant strength & conditioning coach, and you would not believe some of the practices that occur in athlete development at that level. The head strength and conditioning coach at this particular institution had no other credential other than that he played in the National Football League. I was told by this particular individual to not question how they ran their training sessions but to simply “be there” and yell as much as I could. When training the football team, we would all congregate in a room outside of the weight room and jump and yell at the top of our lungs. Once we were adequately “pumped up,” we would sprint into the weight room and orchestrate 1 hour of pure chaos. Trust me, there was no science or forethought into these training sessions. The reality is that we live in a athlete development world where the loudest and most adequate sales personnel are running the industry.
The consequences of this reality is that athletes are getting overtrained and injured. Even more unfortunate is that once these athletes get injured and are labelled “not tough enough,” they are tossed to the wayside and replaced with another individual who will have a likely chance of suffering the same fate.
At Alberta Sport Development Centre at Medicine Hat College we are doing our best to change the dynamics of the industry. We have two very qualified, scientifically based strength & conditioning coach’s who approach athletic development very methodically. As the coordinator, I am very confident that when I send our strength & conditioning coaches to any athlete or team that the athletes will stay healthy and get nothing
but the best.
Cory Coehoorn is the coordinator of the Alberta Sport Development Centre at Medicine Hat College. He would love to chat with you and answer any questions that you may have regarding their programs and services. He can be reached via email at ccoehoorn@mhc.ab.ca or via phone at 403-504-3547.