Coaching Plyometrics with Carmen Bott

In this hands on practical session, Carmen will hone in on the technical details of coaching the 3 tiers of plyometric drills. Participants will learn by doing and work on developing their abilities to identify abnormal movement strategies and to quickly regress or progress based on the athlete’s skill level.

Early to Mid-Stage Achilles Tendinopathy Rehab with Clayton Cross

Participants will learn current concepts in Achilles tendinopathy injuries and the impact of the foot-ankle complex on Achilles pathology. The session will cover lower limb mobility strategies and progressive exercise rehabilitation
interventions for Achilles tendon injuries.

Put Your Data to Work with Amarah Epp-Stobbe

This session will take participants through data handling best practices, providing clear and actionable strategies that empower participants. This hands-on session will include insights into the sports data lifecycle, including strategies to collect and manage information as well as straightforward statistics to assess changes in performance and share results with coaches and athletes. 

How and Why to Incorporate Non-Traditional Strength Methods into Your Practice with Joe McCullum

The foundations for the majority of athletes revolves around their ability to flex, extend, rotate and resist movement relatively well. Traditional strength training can offer some great yields in these foundational movements, but are S&Cs leaving some valuable factors out? In this active session Joe will add variables to traditional movements and show how athletes can learn to connect the dots to encourage the best transfer possible from the gym/field to their perspective sport. Joe will touch on the following concepts in this active participation session: using sport KPI’s to inform sessions, yielding, falling and tumbling progressions, transitions, partner work, how to resist tension and manipulate it in others.

Integration of Sport Science into The Daily Training Environment
with Dave McDowell

In this session participants will create an understanding on how to use free and paid tools to integrate athlete monitoring, data tracking, and athlete testing into the daily training environment. Dave will discuss statistics, making decisions, and how to better use data to support training process.

Bridging the Gap Between Speed Drills and Sprinting
with Joey Nemet

There are many coaches out there who consider sprint drills to be a waste of time. In many cases, they’re not wrong. If drills are dropped indiscriminately into a training session and performed with poor to mediocre intent and execution, then Joey would agree with them. Speed drills are used primarily to teach and prime positions, actions and rhythms that we deem important for effective sprint performance. It is crucial for coaches to provide context to athletes as to how these movements relate to sprinting. This can be accomplished by: providing effective instruction, choosing drills and implements that provide salient feedback to the athlete, organizing drills with purpose, and continually drawing connections between targeted movements and sprinting. These are the keys to unlocking what drills have to offer athletes partaking in a speed training program. This session will provide participants with hands-on experience performing and coaching select examples of drill progressions, leaving them with tools they can implement with their athletes right away.

Becoming a More Adaptive Coach: Lessons Learned from Parasport Strength and Conditioning with Isaac Seabrook

Parasport athletes can receive great benefit from a structured S&C training plan, yet this population is often underserved. This presentation will explore the training strategies that have succeeded, and some that have not, from Isaac’s own experience growing a parasport training program at Sheridan College. Equipment and exercise modifications will be discussed and will include live demonstrations with a national level wheelchair tennis athlete. This session will highlight how parasport training is simply adaptive training, and connect the lessons learned with this population, back to able-bodied athletes requiring adaptive exercise.

From Table to Training: Using S&C Principles to Guide Return to Play with Ricky Singh

A principle based approach to returning athletes back to training after suffering an injury. Ricky will discuss how to view injury from a biopsychosocial model and understand the role each practitioner has in the recovery of an athlete. Emphasis will be placed on the role of the therapist and S&C coach and how these disciplines should communicate with one another. Ricky will go over principles used when establishing therapy and rehab goals and the progressions used to return an athlete to training.

Been There, Done That, Still Doing It…the ART and Science of Being an Elite Strength & Conditioning Coach with Peter Renzetti

This seminar will focus on the challenges and difficulties of managing professional athletes and coaches and scheduling, planning or periodization, of training. Due to Peter’s background most examples will come from his work in the NHL. In addition Peter will touch on the differences between professional and Olympic sports seasons/planning. With a focus on blending the art and science of coaching based on his experiences over the years Peter will also discuss why he feels that a combination of both micro-dosing and adapting the principles of conjugate training are the most ideal for such a long in-season for a sport like hockey and similarly why conjugate is the optimal method for use in the off-season.

The Student-Internship Experience: Practical Recommendations for Coaches & Interns with Josh Crouse

In this session, Josh will offer coaches practical recommendations of how to implement and develop a sustainable student-internship in both the private and university sectors. Josh will cover a wide variety of topics from developing a philosophy, recruiting, culture development, professional development, and program sustainability. Josh will also discuss the challenges of implementing a student-internship and how his philosophy has evolved.

Key Nutritional Considerations for Youth Sport Development with Melissa Allen

Adolescence is a time of significant physical change and the habits developed during this time are key for future health. Building the relationship and connection between diet, exercise and the athletes body image can be a powerful piece in the youth athletes’ ability to reach their full potential.
During the session Melissa will discuss how the physical changes of a youth athlete impacts energy demands and macronutrient ratios. Micronutrients of focus that will be covered in the session are iron, vitamin D, and calcium. Lastly, hydration is an important piece that will be discussed in hopes to bring clarity to its place for athletes. As members of the support team that surrounds youth athletes, S&C coaches can each play a vital role in helping to establish eating patterns that fuel the athlete.

From Pro to the Private Sector – Journey, Lessons, and Progressions with Blair O’Donovan

Within this presentation Blair will be sharing his unique journey through the strength and conditioning world along with lessons learned working through the pro ranks and into the private sector.

Blair will provide insight into what’s helped build a successful performance training business as well as many of the struggles faced throughout the process.

Blair will also share how tech, including Hawkin Dynamics tools,  have helped elevate his business and what methods are currently being used.

Strength and Conditioning Considerations Traveling with a Professional
Circus with Chad Fraser

Breakdown of logistics behind touring the world with a professional circus company. Chad will examine the realities associated with show performances, space considerations, strength and conditioning training, recovery and return to stage with this specific population of artist-athletes and how they differ from traditional sport athletes. Chad will explore current trends with load management and rehabilitation options along with interactive discussions about S&C ideas for specific circus disciplines.