“Going to college level has given me insight for how to help those middle school and high school athletes who may have ambitions for making it to that next level.”
Christian Hosley, Assistant Strength & Conditioning Coach for Men’s Basketball at Texas Tech University, sits down with Coach Crochran for Episode 7 of The Croc Show. Coach Hosley shares insights on his path from playing football at the Division 3 level, transferring to play at a D1 school, taking on a S&C role in high school, and then moving on to work with college basketball. Similar to Coach Dan Mullins’ recent article on the blog, Coach Hosley discusses how he and Texas Tech Head Strength Coach Andrew Wright make a concerted effort to be sure their athletes understand the reasoning and purpose behind exercises and methods to increase buy-in and performance.
“We’re very simple programmers,” Coach Hosley says. “We’re going to hang clean, we’re going to squat, we’re going to press, we’re going to pull—all of these movements are key. The biggest thing Coach Wright and I pride ourselves in, we’re big over-communicators. It doesn’t do justice to the athletes if we’re just going through the strength and conditioning program and they don’t know why we’re doing something. WHY are we squatting, WHY are we pushing this way, WHY are we doing these curved runs, WHY are we doing change of direction.”
It doesn’t do justice to the athletes if we’re just going through the strength and conditioning program and they don’t know WHY we’re doing something, says @hosleystrong. Share on XHaving a firm grasp of the why behind his programming is also helpful as Coach Hosley discusses the challenges of working in college sports in the new era of the Transfer Portal, where the staff need to be able to “meet players where they are” in situations where the athletes may only be in the program for a year or two. Managing those scenarios also includes that same commitment to proactive communication.
“If there’s a guy that the basketball coaching staff is even thinking about bringing in as a transfer, Coach Wright will call the S&C coach of that recruit’s current team and make sure he learns as much information as he can about that player. What is he good at? What are some weaknesses? So as strength coaches, we can be prepared if he does come.”
As new coaches in the program, Hosley also talks with Coach Croc about the learning curve and process he and Wright have used to get up to speed on the technology the program already had access to, including KINEXON and force plates.
“We’re at a time of year where I can program something for myself and try it out for the athletes, so we’ll be able to bring it to them next year,” Hosley says. “What I’ll do is implement force plates to see is my force is going up, is my RSI going up, and other metrics so I can test: what is my programming actually doing for me.”
Video 1. Episode 7 of The Croc Show featuring Coach Christian Hosley.
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