Interviews ARTICLES

Industry News and Research

Over 30 Years and Still Coaching: Part 1

CSCA Director Q and A with Ed McNeely CSCA - How did you get started in the industry? EM - I started in the high-performance world over 30 years ago. The landscape was very different, most sports were decentralized, with national team athletes training at their home clubs for most of the year and coming together for a short period of time for camps or competitions. Strength and conditioning as a profession did not exist in Canada and even in the US the NSCA was less than a decade old and strength coaches were still trying to gain traction as [...]

August 15, 2019|Categories: Career, Interviews|

Over 30 Years and Still Coaching: Part 2

CSCA Founder and Inaugural President Sheldon Persad CSCA - How did you get started in the industry? SP - My passion has been coaching since I was in grade school. My first paid opportunity came in the mid-1980s as a result of one of my teachers (Doug Quarrington) having faith in me and seeing something in me I did not see in myself. Although he was a teacher, he had a part-time job as the convenor of a youth basketball league. At the last minute, just before the regular season started, one of the coaches had to drop out.  He [...]

August 15, 2019|Categories: Career, Interviews|

The Power of Mentorship: An S&C Family Tree Perspective

By Chris Chapman, Steve Lidstone, Joe Vecchione, and Jeremy Watkin Power is defined as the rate of work or work divided by time. This is the perfect descriptor for mentorship “as many hands make light work”. Mentorship can greatly increase the rate at which young professionals grow, it can increase the volume and quality of work that is produced through collective effort, and it can prevent the decay of relevance by keeping young unbiased minds learning, questioning and challenging the current systems.    This article portrays 4 stories of mentorship through 3 generations of an S&C family tree. Chris Chapman [...]

August 13, 2019|Categories: Career, Industry, Interviews|

Scott Vass’ Work at Vancouver College in British Columbia

Over the last decade, there has been a shift towards greater integration of academics and sports in high schools. This integration has resulted in greater incidences of certified strength and conditioning (S&C) coaches working with high school aged athletes either during regular time table blocks or outside of traditional school hours.   The introduction of Fitness and Conditioning 11 & 12 into the BC Curriculum further opened opportunities to integrate S&C into a student’s schedule either through a structured class taught by a teacher with S&C credentials or by providing credit for the training athletes were already completed as part of [...]

May 28, 2019|Categories: Interviews, Youth Training|

Olympian Bill Crothers’ Connection with Chris Chapman and Derek Virgo

“Healthy active kids become healthy active adults.”  This quotation is from former school trustee and Olympic medalist Bill Crothers, who was instrumental in creating a public school in Markham Ontario that supports student-athletes like no other. Supporting the students includes having a full-time S&C coach as part of the faculty. I met with Mr. Crothers over hot chocolate to discuss the genesis of the high school named in his honour, Bill Crothers Secondary School (BCSS). I also met with the school’s first S&C coach Chris Chapman, and the current S&C coach Derek Virgo, who shared their answers to 4 questions [...]

May 28, 2019|Categories: Interviews, Youth Training|

University of Toronto’s Adrian Lightowler

After a serious neck injury ended his playing career as an elite athlete, Adrian Lightowler focused his time and energy into strength and conditioning. For the past eight years the student athletes at the University of Toronto (U of T) have been the benefactors of Adrian’s knowledge and passion. Adrian is a member of the CSCA’s Advisory Team. This interview will give you an opportunity to get to know him better. CSCA: Why are you a strength coach? AL: Sport has given me a great deal and, alongside my family, it has been my motivation to learn and achieve for [...]

May 25, 2019|Categories: Career, Interviews|

Leaving a Legacy at UBC

Initial CSCA calls included some great discussion around the need and desire for greater collaboration and shared learning on a national level. This perspective was shared by CSCA representatives coast to coast. Compared to our neighbours to the South, Canada has a relatively small community of Strength and Conditioning Coaches working in the University environment. British Columbia has a number of universities with established S&C programs and full time coaches. We also have a number of institutions with part time coaches, coaches who fill the role of strength and conditioning coach and athletic therapist and coaches who are shared resources [...]

January 29, 2019|Categories: Interviews|

Making A Difference At Sheridan College

At present there are 24 Colleges and 22 Universities (including the Royal Military College – RMC) in Ontario. Of the 24 Colleges very few have full time S&C coaches on staff.  The majority have full and part-time fitness co-ordinators and athletic therapists helping students and athletes with their conditioning. There are also very few programs that offer individuals entering the field the opportunity to learn specifc strength and conditioning skills. One such program that offers such an education is Sheridan College. The main driver of the program at Sheridan is Dr. Trevor Cottrell. We asked Trevor 4 questions about how [...]

January 29, 2019|Categories: Interviews|
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