Getting them to do the heavy lifting
Bucks’ Hobson is top strength coach in NBA
We are not the only ones draggin’ our wagons to the gym and the weight room some days.
The Milwaukee Bucks spend so much time on the court, between morning practices on before night games, individual workouts on days off, team practices, drills, scrimmages and extra shooting. Plus there’s travel every week, sometimes twice a week, the late hours, early mornings, the adjustments to different time and climate zones all over the country.
Players have spouses and kids, families and obligations, too. Community appearances.
And then they get that reminder on their already-full schedule: Strength training. Suki Hobson. Mandatory. …
Hobson will meet any player anytime, at the crack of dawn, the dead of night or after a game – whenever they need – wearing her customary black sweatshirt and a huge smile, ready to get to work.
“She just brightens it up,” Bucks guard Eric Bledsoe said. “With me,
it’s mental. Sometimes I hate going in there. I don’t want to say it’s torture . ... She makes it fun.”
The Bucks cleaned up on NBA awards in June. Best player, best coach, best general manager.
And best strength and conditioning coach.
Suki Hobson has worked with the Bucks since 2015. Born in England and experienced with football and Olympic athletes, she has been a behind-thescenes yet essential member of the team.
On Sunday, NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo credited Hobson for two things: getting stronger, which has been obvious in both his play and his physical appearance; and, for helping him overcome and stave off injury.
“I’ve never had a major … sorry …” Antetokounmpo said, pausing midthought to rush to the only woodwork he could find, the door to the Bucks’ Fiserv Forum locker room.
His brother Thanasis did it, too. Giannis returned.
“I’ve never had a major injury,” he continued. “She definitely helped me to get stronger. She definitely helped me to not have injuries.
“But the most important thing is that she pays attention to details.
“She did not just try to make me big and all that. She tried to make me flexible. Strong. Take care of the injuries I had, because I had the tendinitis. We did work for a year on that, and that went away.”
The Bucks all will tell you Hobson has had as much to do with the team’s success as any player or coach.
“Suki is unbelievable,” said Bucks GM Jon Horst last May. “Her impact on our franchise – and Troy Flanagan as the head of that department – is significant.
“When you start playing 80, 90, 100 games in the course of a season – the physicality that these guys have – like it’s kind of the survival of the fittest. You want to be the fittest and you want to be the strongest.”
Last year the Bucks were dominant in the first two rounds of the NBA playoffs, sweeping Detroit in four games and beating Boston in five. Despite such efficiency, the Bucks played 91-games, not counting preseason.
By the time they lost in six to Toronto in the Eastern Conference Finals, the season was a grind. Beginning in October and stretching to Memorial Day weekend, it was the longest season many players had ever had.
With the NBA title their goal in 2020, the Bucks need Hobson and the entire staff to help with power, flexibility, injury prevention and endurance.
But Hobson’s reputation is also as performance coach who trains specifically for the NBA.
“She understands how an athlete and a basketball player should move,” said Bucks guard Pat Connaughton, who, like Antetokounmpo, actually loves the weight room work.
“She helped build our entire weight room. I’m climbing on monkey bars, I’m climbing up ropes. I’m pushing sleds. I’m doing a lot of different things that help me better myself and better my body, and she understands what parts of my body I need to work on.
“The NBA is different than football. In football, a lot of work comes in the weight room. In the NBA, it’s a lot more functional movement. It’s not how much you can bench press, it’s not how much you can dead lift. You have to be able to function with the weight you have.”
Hobson customizes training plans. Big man Brook Lopez is not working on the same things as George Hill, and Hill isn’t doing all the same things as Bledsoe.
“She lets you be yourself,” said Hill. “She has welcomed me in to the weight room with open arms and put together different plans that fit my body, and not everyone else’s.
“She’s done a great job of not making it a cookie cutter situation and letting you be yourself.”
Hobson starts with each player’s injury history and works on strengthening those areas.
Bledsoe’s knee surgery years ago means he still works on strengthening muscles that support the knee. Hobson has him wrapping bands around his knees for squats, running in the pool or on the anti-gravity Alter G treadmill, doing squats – all with purpose.
“So you’re not putting a lot of pounding on your knees,” said Bledsoe. “She does a lot of things that help.”
When Khris Middleton was rehabilitating a left hamstring injury for six months in 2016, he worked with Hobson every day, sometimes twice a day. Hobson first took the time to get to know Middleton, and when she did, she found that he was very goal oriented.
“Every day, we set a goal, for something, just to find different ways to keep me motivated,” said Middleton. “She knows when to give you a break, knows when to push you hard. That’s unique as a trainer sometimes. Sometimes they only go full throttle. But she always gets it out of you.”
Still, the non-basketball strength training work can feel tedious. One can only do so many reverse lunges. Hobson always mixes up the exercises and the equipment – have you ever heard of Aquabags? – to keep players engaged and sharp mentally too, even when they’re tired.
It also doesn’t hurt that Hobson is known for her wit and her hugs.
“You don’t want to be in there with someone you don’t get along with,” said Bledsoe. “She makes it a lot easier on us; she’s creative. She’s got a great personality.
Before Milwaukee, worked for Essendon and Geelong, Australian rules football clubs. And then Hobson ran her athletic performance and sports consultancy company, Athlete Revolution International in Melbourne, Australia. She had 15 years of experience working with Olympians and Australian Football League athletes before joining the Bucks.
“My purpose in life is to inspire others around me to be brave and to be powerful leaders,” Hobson said in a 2019 article with Milwaukee Magazine. “Bravery refers to me taking a huge leap in my professional life to be the first female head strength coach in professional sport in America.
“I hope that many more females follow in my footsteps.”
Maybe that’s the second-best part of her story: Hobson is a woman in a maledominated field, and no one cares. At least not in terms of judging her qualifications.
In the NBA, where women officiate the games and represent players as agents, no one takes a second glance at the cheery Brit with a blonde pony tail who’s challenging everyone to their limit in the weight room.
“My AAU coach was a woman,” Bledsoe said. “And they’re tougher than most men. I respect it. It was never an issue with me.”
“She’s one of us, she’s a family member,” Middleton said.
Hobson was nominated by a ninemember board from the NBA Strength & Conditioning Coaches Association, and all 30 NBA coaches then voted. Hobson became the 13th winner of the award and received a monetary prize as well as Hammer Strength equipment for the Bucks’ strength training room.
“She’s the first woman to win this award; I think that’s important to note,” said Joseph Dolisi, executive director of the NBA Strength and Conditioning Association (NBSCA). “I think we’ve only had two females in the organization over the past several years. It’s not more than five.
“Hopefully the industry will start to evolve to have more women in the field just because of the great success she’s had. I hope she’s able to pave the way, especially in the NBA.”
Without prompting, Antetokounmpo brought up Hobson’s minority standing, and spoke of his admiration for her.
“For me, I worked with a lot of females. Like Laura, she’s my ‘physio,’ (physical therapist); Liz is my massage therapist; Suki is my strength and conditioning coach,” Antetokounmpo said. “If my development coach on the court could be a female? I’ll take that, because I feel like they’re better attention to detail.
“And that’s what Suki did.
“I think she’s the only female strength coach in the four major sports. That speaks a lot about how good she is.”