146: Carmen Pata on Practical Strength Training Implementation and Sequencing | Sponsored By Simplifaster

Today’s episode features UW-River Falls strength coach Carmen Pata Carmen Pata, MS, CSCS*D, RSCC*D, a two-time nominee for the National Strength Coaches Association College Strength Coach of the Year, is the Director of Athletic Performance at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.  He has written two books, as well as articles for the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association, National Strength Coaches Association, Teambuildr, and the American College of Sports Medicine. Carmen is a practical coach who is well versed in the “art” of coaching, and particularly the art of doing so at a small University where the coach-athlete ratio is very small and the level of incoming athletes from a physical perspective demands creative solutions to preparation. A big reason I wanted to get Carmen on the show was the nature of his articles, being a mixture of experience intelligence and practicality.  Throughout this podcast, I enjoy talking about a diverse array of training methods.  It is always enjoyable to do episodes where we see how these training means are filtered into a training package, and in this case, 4-year training at a Division 3 school.  In today’s episode, Carmen discusses the biggest things he is trying to get out of his athletes form a mental and physical perspective.  He also talks about how he instills confidence in the weightroom and how athletes need to “earn the barbell” in their first stages of the program.  Finally, we get into year-to-year training progressions and Carmen’s creative utilization of vision training for his athlete populations. Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster.com, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more.  View more show notes at Just-fly-sports.com/podcast-146-carmen-pata