Currently, Keith Scruggs—CSCS*D, USATF-Level 2, USAW—is a Ph.D. student and assistant sports performance coach at the University of South Carolina. He is responsible for the design and implementation of performance development programs for men’s soccer, indoor volleyball, and beach volleyball.
Prior to South Carolina, Scruggs served as an assistant sport performance coach within the Sport Physiology & Performance Department at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Lake Placid, N.Y., under Dr. Brad DeWeese. While at the OTC, Scruggs assisted in supervising the speed, power, and strength development and athlete monitoring of Olympic, national, and developmental team athletes representing Team USA in the following sports: bobsled & skeleton, luge, karate, canoe & kayak.
Freelap USA: Jumping is a complicated situation in beach volleyball. How do you test the athletes to see improvement over the course of a college career? Any wisdom for evaluating how surfaces interact with a program?
Keith Scruggs: Something we rarely talk about is the “ceiling effect” in regard to vertical jumping ability. We still do traditional assessments of “block” and “approach” vertical jumps using a VerTec; however, in our opinion it doesn’t capture the “big picture” and it isn’t sensitive enough to provide coaches with relevant information about the training process/current state of the athlete. Something I started evaluating out of curiosity five years ago is jump velocity. I’m in the process of editing/completing my dissertation at the moment and that will elaborate on this topic in immense detail.
In short, my pilot data over the last five years shows moderate to great association to traditional assessments in S&C (squats, hex bar, cleans, vertical jump, between-legs forward MB toss, 10m acceleration, and 505 agility), while also having great association to “expert rater ranking” of the athletes in regard to skill expression. Given the time constraints in the collegiate setting, the traditional assessments are dispersed throughout the year, while we assess jump velocity every 3-6 weeks. The JV assessment takes approximately 1.5 minutes to administer per athlete/group, which still provides us with time to train. Time and energy—once you spend them, you never get them back. Therefore, you need to use them as investments.
Beach volleyball is unique in the sense that the practice/competition surface is highly variable. Factors affecting this include, but are not limited to, depth, type, temperature, rain/moisture, and game duration (middle of court/near net can become “hollowed” out toward the end of a match). These athletes do need to develop their “sand legs,” but too much time in sand can cause negative adaptions in regard to SSC/joint health and stabilization (especially as it pertains to the knees and hamstrings group).
I believe that strength equals the ability to absorb force, stabilize force, and exert force necessary for the task at hand—in that order, says @sports_scruggs. Share on XDuring periods of high-volume sand work (20-hour periods/in-season), we perform rudimentary plyometric work, barefoot and on grass, prior to or after practice 1-2 times weekly to offset these negative adaptations. In my opinion, strength equals the ability to absorb force, stabilize force, and exert force necessary for the task at hand. In that order! Keeping the rudimentary plyometric work in the program allows for the athletes to absorb and stabilize more efficiently, thus allowing them to exert force/express skill more effectively.
Freelap USA: Strength training has some athletes gaining muscle at different rates. Culturally, how do you manage different sports and attitudes to mass gain with the populations you work with?
Keith Scruggs: To say it simply, by educating them on the process. We have a saying around here that “Fast Mass Moves Mass, FAST!” and we attempt to get every ounce out of what we’re currently working with while maintaining an outlook on future development. Speed, power, agility, and endurance are all affected by strength (relative to body); however, just because an athlete is strong doesn’t necessarily guarantee success in expressing SPAE qualities.
It’s all about identifying where an athlete is on the “spectrum” and having them perform work that will yield the greatest return on their investment (transfer of training effect). The beauty of athlete monitoring is that it allows them to see progress toward attaining their goals, thus creating greater buy-in for the next iteration of training. Culturally, that leads to cyclic investments on behalf of the athletes and can allow sport coaches to have patience with an athlete’s growth and development over the course of their collegiate career.
Freelap USA: Soccer has a stereotype of ignoring the weight room, while Americans are sometimes unfairly labeled as barbell addicts. How do you tackle the balance of strength demands and spending time on other areas?
Keith Scruggs: Again, education is key. These athletes see videos of the elite performing tasks on Bosu balls, AIREX pads, with bands, etc. and think “Hey—that’s what I need to be doing to be just as good.”
My job is to get them to think critically. Do these tasks make them extraordinary athletes or are these athletes capable of performing these tasks because they’re already extraordinary athletes?
I set basic strength benchmarks for our soccer guys to focus on while showing them the improvements via our athlete monitoring assessments. Hopefully, this goes without judgement by my peers, but I do allow them to attempt these “circus tricks”—as long as it’s safe—because they find it fun and challenging. Again, cyclic investments on behalf of the athletes. They get better at the basic tasks and get better at the circus tricks.
{Knock on wood.} We have been blessed with seeing a reduction of injuries over the past few years and I’ve had next to zero compliance issues with getting the soccer guys to work hard, and smart!
Freelap USA: Academics is a real challenge. How do you make adjustments without skipping training altogether to keep athletes improving? While most coaches will certainly lower the volume and intensity, what else can be done besides doing less?
Keith Scruggs: One easy thing to do is look at the academic calendar prior to planning out the process. Understanding when exam periods will be allows for “functional over-reaching” in the week or so prior (especially during the off-season). Additionally, it ties back into creating a culture of striving to be better. Final exam periods are “dead weeks” in the collegiate setting, meaning no required/mandatory training is allowed during those periods and any sessions must be voluntary. I try my best to establish the weight room as a place that athletes at least don’t hate to be and pitch it as an “exam break refuge.”
During final exam periods, when no mandatory training is allowed, I try my best to establish the weight room as a place that athletes don’t hate to be and pitch it as an “exam break refuge.” Share on XTypically, I provide them with a template to fill in with what they want to do (with guidance), so they take on a sense of ownership of the session. In childhood/motor development literature, they call these types of sessions “structured play” or “goal-oriented play,” allowing the athlete to use critical thinking skills to “solve a problem” and become more invested in the process. Different, I know, but I’ve had great feedback and results from this approach, so I continue to adopt and adapt it semesterly during these periods.
Freelap USA: Group dynamics can sometimes overcome the limitations to staffing. How do you use the energy of a team environment to counterbalance the time limitations of training? What about personalized training programs versus competing within the team using a similar workout?
Keith Scruggs: Each training session needs to be considered a well-orchestrated event that includes primary, secondary, and tertiary objectives, along with contingency plans in case things aren’t operating as “smoothly” as envisioned. When creating training groups, I ensure that I tap into the athletes’ personalities, strengths, and weaknesses to keep the group and team on task. Aside from just placing them in groups based on position, strength, height, etc., I make sure there’s a group leader (lead from the front/lead by example type) and a task-oriented leader (lead from the back/accountability leader).
From there, I then fill in the gaps with the ones that I’ve labeled as “nudgers”—they need to be nudged by a group leader (C’mon, let’s go. You’ve got this. You can do it.) and/or by the task-oriented leader (What set are you on? Did you put on the right weight? Did you count your reps?). This structure allows for encouragement, accountability, and “coaching” by their peers when time and staffing (a 1:20-30 coach-to-athlete ratio) are issues.
I believe this type of structure allows for “personalization” based on their personality and leadership qualities, while promoting a within-team competitive setting. Furthermore, the training stimuli is personalized to everyone based on volume load and relative intensity. For example, some groups are in the “get stronger/put on FAST mass” category, where their volume load will be greater than some of their peers (e.g., a few more reps or a few more supplemental exercises). Other groups may be in the “move mass fast” category, where their relative intensity on primary movements may be greater (with a few less reps) and their supplemental exercises may be based more around contrast movements (move fast).
When athletes are among like-minded and equally capable individuals, they will find a way to communicate and compete IF you establish the environment in a way that promotes it. Share on XIn my experience, if athletes are among like-minded and equally capable individuals, they will find a way to communicate and compete IF the environment is established in a way that promotes it. Programs will be “personalized” to their abilities and needs, but S&C (especially in the collegiate setting) is more than just sets/reps/weight. You must find a way to improve their social capital, in addition to their physical qualities, in order to fully optimize the “transfer of training effect” to practice and games.
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