LORMAN, Miss. - The sports information department sat down with Alcorn State University head strength & conditioning coach
Lonnie Maddox and asked him questions about his day-to-day duties.
Q: What is your overall goal as the Alcorn strength & conditioning coach?
A: My goal as Alcorn's strength and conditioning coach is to continue to develop and implement programs that will keep our athletes as healthy as possible in their time here. If our athletic training staff and myself can continue to work together to do this, I feel as if our athletes can compete with the absolute best. It's been a proven fact in my time here with the university.
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Q: What sets Alcorn strength & conditioning apart from other schools, or is there anything we do differently?
A: The thing that sets us apart from other schools is the fact that we may not have the luxuries that the bigger programs have, but I still find ways to improve the performance of all of our athletic teams. If a strength coach truly understands exercise science, it's not as difficult as most may think. The athletes will ultimately notice it as well.
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Q: Everyone knows that speed and strength are two huge elements in being an athlete. Do you have favorite training drills or concepts you can share?
A: Although strength and speed are important in being a good athlete, there are many more elements involved in helping an athlete reach his/her maximum potential. Some of my favorite forms of training include plyometrics and agility drills. Plyometrics are what make these kids explosive and the agilities allow them to be able to safely change direction without losing speed. This is very important to me as a strength coach.
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Q: How often do you recommend student-athletes work out?
A: I base the frequency of our student-athletes' workouts solely off of the part of the year that they are currently in. Athletes that are in the off-season will lift more times a week than those that are in-season. This is due to the demands of sport competition. You have to be smart in your programming to preserve your athletes' bodies.
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Q: What is the most stressful part of your job?
A: There's not really a stressful part to my job. I adjust well to chaos as a former athlete myself. One thing that I will say may bother me is the fact that many on this level still don't understand the importance of strength and conditioning to their respective sport; this goes for coaches and athletes. These kids want to see results, they don't care how they get there, they just expect you to get them there. This is why I document everything to show them how hard they're working in my program.
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Q: What are some of the most impressive feats you have seen by the student-athletes over the last two years at Alcorn?
A: In my time here at Alcorn, I've seen so many impressive feats that have surprised the athletes themselves and even me, and I'm not easy to impress at all. Some of my favorites include a few of our softball players back-squatting well over 300 lbs and baseball players deadlifting over 500 lbs. That's pretty impressive for this level.
#FearTheBrave
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