Today’s episode features UW-River Falls strength coach Carmen Pata

Carmen Pata, MS, CSCS*D, RSCC*D, a two-time nominee for the National Strength Coaches Association College Strength Coach of the Year, is the Director of Athletic Performance at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.  He has written two books, as well as articles for the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association, National Strength Coaches Association, Teambuildr, and the American College of Sports Medicine.

Carmen is a practical coach who is well versed in the “art” of coaching, and particularly the art of doing so at a small University where the coach-athlete ratio is very small and the level of incoming athletes from a physical perspective demands creative solutions to preparation.

A big reason I wanted to get Carmen on the show was the nature of his articles, being a mixture of experience intelligence and practicality.  Throughout this podcast, I enjoy talking about a diverse array of training methods.  It is always enjoyable to do episodes where we see how these training means are filtered into a training package, and in this case, 4-year training at a Division 3 school.

In today’s episode, Carmen discusses the biggest things he is trying to get out of his athletes form a mental and physical perspective.  He also talks about how he instills confidence in the weightroom and how athletes need to “earn the barbell” in their first stages of the program.  Finally, we get into year-to-year training progressions and Carmen’s creative utilization of vision training for his athlete populations.

Today’s episode is brought to you by SimpliFaster, supplier of high-end athletic development tools, such as the Freelap timing system, kBox, Sprint 1080, and more.

Key Points

The biggest thing that Carmen is trying to get out of the weightroom for his athletes

How Carmen instills confidence in the weightroom

How to “earn the barbell” in Carmen’s program

Year to year strength training progressions and emphasis from Freshman to Senior years

Carmen’s utilization of vision training in between his main training sets

Carmen Pata Quotes

“The biggest thing I am trying to instill in the weight room is confidence, but if we are talking adaptation, it might sound trite, but… just get stronger”

“One of the standing rules in the gym is that you are not allowed to say the words “I can’t”

“If you can do things you never thoughts possible, that is the ultimate transfer from the gym to the playing field”

“Before an athlete even touches the barbell, they have to earn the right to do that; that’s the first part of it, the second part of it is the RKC standard of 100 kettlebell snatches in 5 minutes”

“Our freshman year is an intro, solving major movement issues.  Our sophomore year is getting as strong as you can.   Junior year is introduction to the true Triphasic ideas.  Going into their senior year of training, that is going to Bryan Mann’s velocity based stuff (this isn’t a hard line on year to year work as some athletes may progress through these slower or more rapidly)”

“Most of the football players I work with want a big back squat, and good or bad, that’s what we do with them because it feeds into that program.  Our soccer team could care less about that 1RM back squat, they respond better to an escalating density style program”

“(The use of the RKC kettlebell test for freshman) for some of these freshman, it is their first idea of what work really is”

About Carmen Pata

@carmenpata

Carmen Pata, MS, CSCS*D, RSCC*D, a two-time nominee for the National Strength Coaches Association College Strength Coach of the Year, is the Director of Athletic Performance at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. In addition to being an international selling author, Coach Pata writes articles for the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association, National Strength Coaches Association, Teambuildr,