Intresting, had no idea. This definitely adds weight to the previous discussion that a grest S&C coach might be the 2nd most important person on the staff, shoot, maybe the most important.
Yeah, I'd agree with that statement. When you think about who it is that ACTUALLY develops these young kids into elite athletes, I would say it's the S&C coach as well.
A person can be taught tactics and strategy, comparatively speaking, offense defenses routes, schemes etc, but it the people who developed me physically and mentally who shaped the Marine I would become.
If they would have told me I would have ever become a Recon Marine in boot camp, I would have laughed in their faces. I was a fat, out of shape, mentally weak, insecure idiot kid from Montana. Man I was there for the GI Bill and hopefully hot chicks I never considered being "elite" anything. My drill instructors were the first people to get me fit.
They taught me I could do anything as long as I didn't quit mentally. "You're mind will quit before your body does. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter".
Then I got into the fleet and I had squad leaders and platoon sergeants who were PT beasts. They read, studied, even went to school for athletic performance. They turned me into a an elite... warrior? Athlete? Idk. What I do know is that I made the 1500 club (Squat, Bench DL) and ran triathlons. I could ruck 20 miles with a .50 body every Friday, it wasn't easy but it did it. When I went through RIP, it was actually fairly easy physically, and mentally I didn't quit, because "if you don't mind, it don't matter".
The point is, I would have never been "elite" anything without the people who taught me how to eat properly, train and fine tune my body and mind.
It's funny, odd, when I was in Las Vegas I used to go to this group every week called MVP (Merging Vets and Players), and both train with and listen to guys like Nate Boyer, Gerome Sapp, Jay Glazer, Randy Couture, Tim Lane, and other NFL players and elite military veterans, we all shared the same experiences, we all performed at an elite level, but none of it would have been possible without having the S&C trainers to get us there.
Sorry, I'm waxing nostalgic and trying to make a point that any house that is built to last is built on a strong foundation. That starts with physical and mental conditioning.