CSCA Candid Conversations: From Pro Soccer to the NBA with Carl Bergstrom
Carl is a graduate of UBC in Vancouver and currently the Director of Performance for the San Francisco based Golden State Warriors (GSW) in the NBA. During this interview with CSCA Advisory Team member Scott Vass, he discusses his experience working in the private sector, amateur sport (Canadian Women’s Soccer Team) and professional soccer (Vancouver Whitecaps) that lead to his current role with the GSW. Topics also discussed in this interview are: - Career path from UBC undergrad to GSW - Importance of Mentorship and Networking for professional development & career advancement - Developing trust with athletes when entering a [...]
Advisory Team Spotlight: Hayley Legg
Hayley Legg PhD, CSCS,*D, ASCC Hayley is the Clinical and Sport Scientist at Craven SPORT services, Saskatchewan, supporting the S&C and Physiotherapy teams. Additionally, Hayley is a Senior Lecturer at St. Mary’s University in London, contributing to the distance learning Strength & Conditioning Science Master’s program. Prior to this, she contributed to the undergraduate Sport Science and Strength & Conditioning Science degree programs for a decade. She completed her PhD at the University of Saskatchewan, focusing on upper body strength capacity in an aging population. Hayley has been an accredited strength and conditioning coach since 2008, works with a wide range [...]
The Importance of In-Season Strength and Conditioning Training
The benefits of strength and conditioning (S&C) training for athletes of all levels have been long established. Athletes who engage in well-structured and evidence-based off-season S&C programs can make significant gains in strength, power and other performance measures, as well as reduce their risk of injury (1,2). The reality is that most athletes, especially those in competitive team sport, spend the majority of the calendar year in a competitive phase. This means that without an effective in-season S&C approach, athletes risk decreasing a large portion of the performance gains they made in the prior off-season (3). In-season training presents a [...]
Build Passion and Foster Community: An Interview with Dalhousie’s Brett Armstrong
Interview conducted by Travis Dorsey on behalf of the CSCA CSCA: Why did you start your journey of becoming a strength and conditioning coach? Was there anyone influential in your life to guide you? BA: I started my journey of becoming a strength and conditioning coach when working as an athletic therapy student intern at Dalhousie. Many of our athletes’ injuries were stemming from chronic overuse, poor exposure to gradual loading, and a need for simple scalable strength progressions. Soon after my athletic therapy intern experience, I first started working in a Sports Medicine Clinic in Toronto called the Sports [...]
Pitfalls of Conditioning at Youth Sport Practice: A Guide for Sport Coaches
The reemergence of youth sport around the country after a long pause due to the restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic has brought to the forefront the topic of reintroducing athletes appropriately and safely back into sport after a significant hiatus from play. Despite the increased understanding of sport and exercise science today, there may be a disconnect between the information and guidance provided by the strength and conditioning community and the real-world practices of many youth sport organizations and coaches. This article focuses on four key areas that draw from my experience working as a strength and conditioning coach [...]
Strengthening Athlete Motivation by Embedding the Self-Determination Theory in a Strength and Conditioning Program
“Nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care”. At times in my career, I’ve heard statements from coaches along the lines of “this player seems like he doesn’t care” or “it doesn’t seem like she cares about being here”, and this is often followed up with a conversation about how frustrating it is for coaches when the athletes don’t seem present or invested in training. I like to think I understand where the coaches are coming from; a lot of strength and conditioning coaches get into the field through some innate draw to the weight [...]
Forced Evolution: Practical Takeaways Through Navigating the Pandemic
In our competitive profession, coaches at all levels strive to represent themselves as leaders who personify what we speak to our athletes about. Across the sports performance spectrum, we see a race to be the first to discover the newest training method, develop the best acronym, read the most books, or present the latest monitoring approach that we've integrated into our high-performance programs. We all spend significant energy investing in the perception that we are all at the forefront of the latest industry trends. What is rarely spoken about at conferences or on podcasts are the difficult internal conversations about [...]
Be a Lifelong Learner: Professional Development Tips For New Coaches
The professional strength and conditioning coach has to effectively combine the science and practice of training in the development of their athletes. Our field is constantly evolving, making it therefore necessary to develop strategies for becoming a lifelong learner in the industry. With hundreds of peer-reviewed scientific articles being published each month, and new coaching strategies and technologies being implemented in the weight room, it is difficult to stay abreast of the onslaught of new information. This article offers four simple tips and suggestions to aid your development opportunities and maximize your continuing education plan. Tip #1: Do It! (Make [...]
Letter From the CSCA President 2022
Dear CSCA Supporters,As the CSCA continues to grow and evolve, I am excited to announce our new Board of Directors (BOD) and Executive as we navigate through many important milestones in 2022. Our BOD is composed of seven members; Shauna Forsyth, Sam Eyles-Frayne, Samantha Pritchard, Steve Lidstone, Marcello Campanaro, myself, and CSCA Founder and Inaugural President Sheldon Persad who will continue to serve as an Advisor to the Board. I will be serving in the President role for this year, along with Shauna Forsyth as Vice President, and Sam Eyles-Frayne serving dual roles as Secretary and Treasurer. This will be [...]
