The Collegiate Strength and Conditioning Coaches Association held it's 10th annual conference in Orlando, Florida at the Marriott World Center. This marked the 10th anniversary of the Association's birth and it's growth in membership, sponsorships, exhibitors, and importance to the strength and conditioning profession, especially on the college level has been impressive. The vision of the 10-member group who help found this association is truly a reality. There is a strong membership base and there is a true camaraderie with all the coaches when they join each other one time per year under one roof.

I have been a member of this association for all 10 years. I have been an active member for the last three. I have little regrets in my 20 plus years in the field but after being involved recently; I wished I had gotten involved sooner. I should have listened to all those coaches who continued to call me year in and year out to attend. All I will say is, the CSCCa is doing an outstanding job of doing it the right way and I believe they do care about their membership. If you are a young and eager strength and conditioning coach whose goal is to work in college, this is an association you need to belong to.

As usual the conference was run very well and the speaker list was solid. I personally attended 2 lectures, "Dueling Football Coaches" with Coach Kevin Yoxall of Auburn and Tim Socha of Boise State and "Lessons Learned" by legend Coach Johnny Parker. As I sat in the front row for both of these lectures, I was not disappointed.

In Dueling Coaches, the topic was In Season Training. I was again excited to see that both coaches train their "travel squad" three times per week. As you know I am a huge proponent of 3 times per week strength training year round. This is becoming the norm in season with more and more teams. It just makes sense with the In Season being the longest uninterrupted training program we have on the collegiate level. Both coaches did a great job of presenting their material. Key points for me were; "YOX" will train his red shirts 5 days per week if they have a home game with Friday and Saturday's sessions being work capacity related. Tim is very aware of making sure his training sessions for his travel squad does not take away too much energy for the most important training sessions of the week, PRACTICE. His goal is to increase/maintain strength while using as little energy possible, saving the athlete's fuel for COMPETITION.

Lessons Learned with Coach Johnny Parker was absolutely great. Coach Parker has 3 super rings as an NFL strength and conditioning coach and he was truly humble and grateful to be able to address the crowd. Being a historian of the field, Johnny Parker is one of the true greats. I remember the first time I had spoken to Coach; he cold called me while I was working at Arizona State. Imagine that, a man with "3 Rings" wants to talk to me about training. We spent over an hour swapping training ideas back in forth since we were both implementing principles of Westside Barbell. While Coach was working with the 49'ers his assistant at the time Duane Carlisle and I struck up a relationship that is one I cherish and when Duane was promoted when Coach Parker retired, one of my dearest friends/family Mark Uyeyama was hired to be his assistant. GO NINERS!

Here are some of the bullet points that stuck out to me while Coach was telling us life-changing stories on his path to success.

• NEVER LET ANYONE DEPENDING ON YOU DOWN

• CREATE CIRCUMSTANCES

• THINK ABOUT THE DAY AND HOW CAN I DO IT BETTER

• KIDS WANT TO KNOW THE REPERCUSSIONS OF THEIR ACTIONS

• CAN'T REST ALWAYS SOMEBODY YOUNGER OF HUNGRIER

• MAKE'EM FEEL SPECIAL, THEY CAN ACCOMPLISH ANYTHING

• COACH THE KIDS NOT THE WEIGHTS

The highlight of the conference is the Thursday evening Master Strength and Conditioning Coach awards dinner. This is the highest achievement you can earn in the CSCCa. I received my Master's jacket last year and I am honored to be apart of this group of men and women that totals 92 after this year's inductions. As I have become a veteran in the field, I took the opportunity after the dinner to round up as many of my former staff that worked with me at various places for a group picture. I have been blessed to be around so many good people and this picture was my highlight of the conference. A definite WORDS WIN!

As I mentioned earlier, the conference is definitely about camaraderie and another highlight was the photo shot of the 4 full time strength and conditioning coaches in Boise State history who were all in attendance this year. Ron Thomson was the first full time strength coach from 1987-1994. I followed Ron after serving as his assistant for three years from 1994-1998. Jeff Pitman took the lead in 1998-2006. Tim Socha is now running the show and has been there since the 2006 season.

I would like to thank Chuck and Becky Stiggins for their hospitality and their tremendous commitment to the CSCCa. Chuck is the Executive Director and one of the founders. Chuck and Becky pour their heart and soul into making this event and association a tremendous success. It is evident in the emotion that they both show whenever they address the crowd or speak to you one on one. They get it. It's about people.

Till next week

WORDS WIN

Coach Kenn at BIG HOUSE POWER