Stronger Athletes

---

Cincinnati Clinic Recap

February 23 "Winning is the science of being totally prepared." -George Allen

This past weekend we traveled the 9 or so hours from Kansas City to Cincinnati in order to hear two coaches speak on strength, conditioning and nutritional topics. Mike Shibinski is the head strength coach at Princeton High School in Cincinnati, Ohio. Coach Shibinski spoke to a room of approximately 50-60 coaches and very diplomatically mentioned that he does not incorporate power clean type movements in his training. As we were sitting in the front we could not see the reaction on the faces of the football coaches in the room. However, judging by the number of questions Mike fielded after the lecture they were paying attention. These guys could not believe power cleans were not being used to train football players.

That was the same feeling we had when we were challenged to take them out of our training practices. "What? Not use the power clean? How are we going to train Power?" A coach sitting next to me said,"Some people believe this and some people believe that." People, eliminate the word "believe" from your vocabulary in terms of training methods. You believe in God or such. To believe is an element of faith. Strength training is science it either is or it isn't. Power is not developed by moving fast. Power is a by-product of moving fast.

Mike Shibinski, Dr. Ted Lambrinides, and Jeff Roudebush at the Frank Glazier/Mega Clinic in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Coach Shibinski does an outstanding job of educating the coaches and players he works with. He gave us all a 30 page booklet that he gives to coaches and athletes outlining the what's, why's and how's of Princeton Viking Strength Training. One thing I have observed is that serious strength coaches, olympic or non-olympic are very knowledgeable and work hard to share that knowledge with those around them.

We wondered how many coaches would return for Mike's second lecture after they discovered his stance on the "secret", (a.k.a. power cleans). A credit to the football coaches in attendance at this clinic as they chose to come back. In fact they must have brought a friend because the second session had more people than the first!

Mike brought 4 of his athletes to demonstrate various conditioning drills and when I visited with them they were very excited about the work Coach Shibinski was doing with them. We learned a lot and are grateful for coaches like Mike who are not afraid to make a stand for safety in the weight room.

In an upcoming article we will post our comments concerning Dr. Ted Lambrinides' lecture on Nutritional Supplements.