BEHIND THE SCENES | CSCCa National Conference
- May 8
- 7 min read
By Joe “BIG HOUSE” Kenn
The Annual Gathering of the Profession
When the calendar hits May, there is no doubt where the majority of the top collegiate strength and conditioning coaches will be headed, the CSCCa National Conference. Once again, we found ourselves in Fort Worth, Texas, as this location seems to rotate on the schedule fairly often. On a future note, the Dynamic Fitness and Strength team is super excited that the next three years this event will be hosted in our home state of Wisconsin. That’s right, we will see you in Milwaukee in 2027, 2028, and 2029!
Networking, Relationships, and the Coaching Brotherhood
This event is always a fun one for several members of the DFS Team. Coach Kevin “YOX” Yoxall, Coach Steve “Gort” Gortmaker, and myself have over 80 years of combined coaching experience, and we truly enjoy reconnecting with former colleagues while also building relationships with the younger generation of coaches entering the profession. Our booth had a steady flow of coaches stopping by to visit, talk shop, and discuss training philosophies throughout the week. That is exactly what these events should be about, networking and learning. Those are two of the most important aspects of high level coaching clinics and conferences.
Revisiting Strongman Training in Sports Performance
I was fortunate enough to speak this year, and I want to thank Don Decker, Dr. Pat Ivey, and Al Johnson for continuing to provide veteran coaches a platform to share experiences and lessons learned over decades in the profession. I was excited to see a strong turnout for my presentation and felt the discussion generated some excellent thought among the attendees.
The title of my presentation was “Alternate Options for Strength, Power, and Conditioning in Sports, Revisiting the Tools of Strongman Training for Training Adaptations.” This was a newer presentation topic for me, but having had the opportunity to work with 4x World’s Strongest Man Brian Shaw, along with one of the strongest athletes in the world today, Tom Evans, certainly added another layer of practical experience to the discussion. That opportunity alone made this year’s conference especially memorable for me.
Honoring Coaching Excellence
Another major highlight of the week was attending the Master Strength and Conditioning Coach’s Dinner. Coach Yox and I had the honor of serving as jacket presenters for two of the newest inductees, Rick Karasch and Brett Lenaburg. The MSCC credential remains the highest level of achievement within the CSCCa, and both coaches are extremely deserving of the recognition. Congratulations again to both men on an incredible accomplishment and addition to their professional vitae.
Highlighted Speaker
Dr. Quincy Johnson
My highlighted speaker for this year’s conference was my good friend and colleague, Dr. Quincy Johnson of the Jayhawk Performance Lab. Dr. “Q” and I have developed a tremendous science and practice relationship over the last several years, and we are currently working on some exciting projects moving forward. It was an easy choice for me to spotlight his presentation because I believe he delivered one of the most practical and thought provoking talks of the entire conference.
Also, major congratulations are in order as Dr. Johnson will soon be heading to Oklahoma State University to lead their Exercise Science Lab. That is an outstanding professional achievement and well deserved.
The Importance of Purpose Driven Data
One of the presentations that immediately grabbed my attention during the conference was Dr. Johnson’s session titled “KPIs – Are They Important?” In a profession where technology, monitoring systems, and athlete tracking tools continue to grow at an incredible pace, this presentation delivered an important reminder to every coach in attendance, data without direction is just noise. What I appreciated most about Dr. Johnson’s presentation was that it was not a sales pitch for technology. It was a discussion centered around performance management, athlete development, and building systems that actually improve outcomes. The entire presentation kept circling back to one critical concept, identify your performance objective first.
Building the Performance Management System
One of the strongest visuals in the presentation outlined the “Performance Management System.” The process was straightforward and logical. Identify what success looks like, build the performance model, determine the KPIs, assess the athlete, deploy interventions, and finally review the process. Simple in appearance, but incredibly powerful in application. Too many coaches today begin with testing instead of beginning with the sport itself. They collect numbers because the technology exists rather than asking the more important question, what actually matters to winning and performance?
That was one of the biggest takeaways from this session. Successful performance systems are not built backwards from force plates, GPS units, or dashboards. They are built from the demands of the sport and the qualities required for success. If you do not know exactly what performance should look like, then your KPIs have no anchor point.
Keep the Main Thing the Main Thing
Another slide that really resonated with me was titled “Bottom Line Up Front.” The message was direct and coach driven. Maximize athletic performance. Incorporate KPIs as part of a system. Assess athletes and establish valid performance objectives. Identify what it takes to succeed. Keep the main thing the main thing.
That final statement matters now more than ever. Modern performance training has entered an era where coaches can monitor nearly everything. Sleep quality, heart rate variability, readiness scores, ground contact times, velocity outputs, lactate measures, wellness questionnaires, GPS loads, and jump metrics are now available daily. The problem is not the technology. The problem becomes when coaches lose sight of why they are collecting the information in the first place. Metrics are tools, not the mission.
Defining KPIs the Right Way
One thing I really appreciated was how Dr. Johnson clarified terminology. In performance training, people often use phrases like KPI, monitoring, and performance objective interchangeably even though they mean very different things. He simplified it perfectly. A KPI, or Key Performance Indicator, is simply a measurable variable used to evaluate success relative to a performance objective.
In other words, a KPI is a metric. The performance objective is the goal itself. That distinction matters because many coaches today confuse testing outcomes with actual performance outcomes. Just because something can be measured does not mean it has meaningful transfer to sport success. That is where context becomes king.
Internal, External, and Sport Specific KPIs
The presentation also did an excellent job breaking KPIs into three categories, internal, external, and sport specific. Internal KPIs included variables such as heart rate parameters, sleep quality, hormonal profile, body composition, and neuromuscular strength and power. These markers help coaches understand how the athlete is responding physiologically.
External KPIs included training duration, training volume, intensity, participation, attendance, and environmental conditions. These variables help quantify the training process itself.
Sport specific KPIs brought everything back to competition performance with examples such as points scored, yards gained, tackles, shots attempted, takedowns, and minutes played. At the end of the day, sport performance is still the ultimate report card. The major takeaway was that all three KPI categories must work together. You cannot evaluate athlete readiness in isolation from training demands or competitive performance.
The 10-5-3 Performance Model
One of the more interesting concepts discussed was the “10-5-3” performance model. From a programming standpoint, I thought this was a really clean way to organize training emphasis across developmental phases. The model connected 10 repetition ranges with foundational movement and function, 5 repetition ranges with maximal strength development, and 3 repetition ranges with power production and explosive outputs.
What stood out to me was how the model tied physiology directly into exercise selection and long term adaptation. The foundational “10’s” emphasized movement competency and training capacity through foundational movement patterns such as squatting, hinging, lunging, pushing, and pulling. The “5’s” shifted toward absolute and relative strength development through multi joint compound exercises. The “3’s” emphasized neuromuscular power through Olympic lifting derivatives, ballistic exercises, and plyometrics.
What I liked most was the organization and clarity. Coaches are constantly searching for ways to simplify communication while still maintaining programming sophistication, and this model did a solid job of bridging both.
Context Still Rules Coaching
Another valuable section of the presentation centered around determining KPIs through practicality, reliability, validity, and transferability. That matters because technology has advanced faster than coaching wisdom in many environments. Just because a program can collect thousands of data points every day does not mean those data points improve athlete performance.
One of the coach’s notes on the slide stated that context, representation, and engagement are key. I could not agree more. Athletes are not spreadsheets. They are human beings operating inside constantly changing environments filled with stress, fatigue, travel, academics, injuries, competition pressure, and emotional fluctuations. Numbers matter, but numbers alone never tell the full story. That is where coaching experience still matters.
Performance Is Multi Factorial
The closing examples examining jump height relationships with eccentric and concentric qualities reinforced another important reality, performance is rarely dependent on one variable. Jump performance was connected to propulsive power, braking force, velocity characteristics, jump momentum, reactive strength, and body mass.
That is an important reminder for coaches searching for “the one thing” that drives performance. There usually is no one thing. Elite athletic performance is the integration of multiple qualities working together inside the demands of the sport.
Final Thoughts
Overall, this was an outstanding presentation because it blended science with coaching application. That balance is becoming increasingly important in our profession. Technology is not going away, nor should it. Monitoring systems, force plates, GPS tracking, velocity devices, and athlete management systems all have tremendous value when used correctly. But they only become valuable when tied directly to clearly defined performance objectives.
That was the biggest lesson from this session. KPIs are only meaningful when they support the mission.
Nothing more to say except thank you to everyone who stopped by the Dynamic Fitness and Strength booth throughout the week. The conversations, networking, and relationships are what continue to make this profession special. We appreciate all of you and look forward to seeing everyone again next year.
Avec l’expérience, j’ai appris à ne plus choisir un club de jeux en ligne uniquement en fonction des offres de bienvenue. Je préfère analyser des aspects plus concrets comme la fluidité des sessions, la qualité des fournisseurs de jeux présents et la transparence des règles liées aux promotions. Il m’est arrivé de quitter certaines plateformes parce que les menus étaient confus ou que les informations importantes étaient difficiles à trouver. Aujourd’hui, je privilégie les environnements où tout est clairement présenté dès la première visite. Pour ceux qui sont encore en phase de comparaison, consulter le guide consacré à LuckyTreasure peut être utile afin d’obtenir un aperçu détaillé des fonctionnalités disponibles et de faire un choix plus réfléchi.
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