The other day I saw a tweet that asked fitness professionals (personal trainers, strength and conditioning coaches, sports performance coaches etc…) to tweet back x2-3 fitness professionals they found to be innovative, creative, or inspirational. While some of the fitness professionals named were definitely well deserving, I found it ironic that the trainers that got the most hits where the ones that spent more time writing and selling, rather than coaching. While I’m all for educated and educating fitness professionals, I believe the young up and coming fitness professionals are getting way too influenced by fitness marketing. Therefore I wanted to put out a post naming some coaches that I don’t believe get enough credit for being great coaches.
Here we go:
In no particular order the first is:
Luke Richesson
Coach Richesson is currently the Broncos strength and conditioning coach and has a very strong background in this field:
- Denver Broncos Strength and Conditioning 2012-13
- Jacksonville Jaguars Strength and Conditioning 2009-11
- Athletes’ Performance (Tempe, Ariz.) Performance Team Director 2001-08
- Arizona State University Strength & Conditioning Graduate Assistant 1999-2000
- University of Wyoming Strength & Conditioning Graduate Assistant 1998
- University of Kansas Strength & Conditioning Intern 1997
Mladen Jovanovic
I first heard of Coach Jovanovic from an EliteFTS article he wrote back in the 2006 called “Overview of Periodization Methods of Resistance Training”. Read the article and you’ll be a fan, seriously READ IT.
Mladen is currently a physical preparation coach for many high level athletes in Serbia.
Since I know you’ll be fan, here is his blog
Mark Verstegen
Coach Verstegen is the founder and president of Athlete Performance. I first heard of Athletes performance back in 2002 when I was a student assistant strength coach at ECU. Keep in mind that here wasn’t an abundance of fitness information available back then, but I made sure to find out as much as I could about AP and Coach Verstegen. I was actually lucky enough to be able to talk shop with Mark when I was in the Bahamas and was just blown away by his coaching knowledge and stern but friendly demeanor.
AP also has a great mentorship program with Nick Winkelman, another ridiculous smart coach.
Mike Woicik
Coach Woicik is the current strength and conditioning coach for the Dallas Cowboys. The only thing I really need to say is that he has 6 super bowl rings…SIX! But I’ll go into his past just for the hell of it, despite his SIX Super Bowl rings….After a GA spot at Springfield College- seems like they breed strength coaches there – he then went on to coach at Syracuse and then made his way into the NFL- (Cowboys, Saints, Patriots).
A great video on what Coach Woicik is about by the NFL network HERE
Conclusion
While there are many other coaches out there, including my mentors – Coach Whitten, Simmons, Sigmon, Rotchstein, Gerringer, Boone, and many more. The point of this post is to inform young personal trainers that there are great coaches outside of X fitness presentation tour, selling videos and books, or some other media marketing blast. In fact, I find that the most innovative coaches are those that are actually in the field coaching athletes and training clients, not sitting behind a desk all day writing about theoretically BS. While I do believe it is important to have educators, I believe the fitness field has spiraled too far away from the core of the field, “fitness professionals” actually training and coaching.
Stay strong,