Today’s podcast features Scott Leech. Scott is the head strength and conditioning coach at the University of Rhode Island. He oversees football, women’s tennis, and women’s track and field and manages all strength and conditioning aspects for the department. Scott is a former football captain and earned academic honors at Springfield College.
Agility training is far more than cones, ladders, and tires. It is a multi-faceted training construct based heavily on task-based stimuli. Modern coaches are understanding in greater detail, the need to help players adapt to the tasks of the game. There is a place in performance where further strength and linear speed gains no longer move the needle for an athlete in their on-field play. At some point, a broader understanding of movement must be taken up by coaches who desire to improve transfer points in their performance program.
On today’s podcast, Scott gets into the weekly breakdown of his speed and agility training program. He talks about how he pairs specific on-field perception and reaction tasks with more linear speed, jump training items, and strength work done in the gym. Through the podcast, Scott makes distinctions between games done for fun and for task-specific purposes, the role of exploration, as well as manipulation of variables in speed and agility games. This podcast will really expand your understanding of off-season training and performance.
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Main Points
1:15– The “200” rule for bench press in Scott’s gym
7:15– Defining moments in how Scott’s approach to game speed has evolved
10:45– Scott’s ratio of linear or developmental work, to applied agility work
20:15– The role of “fun games” and then specific developmental agility games
22:15– Scott’s 3 types of training days in his weekly regimen
29:15– Manipulating race and chase drills to increase competitive richness
35:15– Setting up drills to allow for exploration of techniques and creativity
43:15– The nature of Scott’s maximal velocity day
51:00– Scott’s change of direction oriented training days
59:15– How Scott assesses athletic capacity
Scott Leech Quotes
“Can it be reactive, but can it also start looking a little more like football.. it’s easier when it looks like a drill they did at practice”
“We like to start with high intensity, competitiveness (in speed and agility training), and then we backfill with what we need”
“Coaches see a 1v1 on social media and think, that’s a good drill, but in my head, there is more to it then that, there is “what are the entry points for the offensive and defensive person?”, “Is it a static start, or are they shuffling and starting the drill”? What happens when you add obstacles to the situation”
“Handball is purely a game, let’s go out and have fun; but I can’t use it to help them move off a pick and roll”
“We’ll do acceleration, horizontal plyos, and single leg lifts (on Monday), and guys will come back feeling better then when they walked in, this is good work but it isn’t crushing me”
“Wednesday we run fast, we jump high, we lift heavy, and we get paid!”
“It’s ok if you have something a little bit lateral on your acceleration day, or curved sprints, where does that fit in?”
“Now make it, the front person can’t leave until the back person moves (in a basic chase drill)”
“Well I undercut the barrel because I thought I get there before he a move, but he beat me with speed. Well he lost but at least he is trying something new; there is so much more value in that versus doing an L drill and just saying “you won it and you lost it””
“When you come to this level, players get exposed, because everyone is fast, everyone is strong”
“The difference between a kid playing and not playing is (angles, perception, reaction); It’s not speed and power, he’s got plenty of that”
“Foot is nothing but layers of complexity and the guys who can sift through that are the good football players”
“For me, 24×110’s, the only thought in my mind is survive. And I don’t want to be on the football field “trying to survive””
“There’s players that can push all the weight in the world, but they aren’t good at pushing a body”
Show Notes:
Scott’s Pre-contact course
https://contactprep.carrd.co/
About Scott Leech
Scott Leech enters his fifth year at Rhode Island in 2023-24. In July of 2021, he was promoted to head strength and conditioning coach after initially joining the department as an assistant strength and conditioning coach in February of 2020.
With the Rams, Leech oversees football, women’s tennis and women’s track & field in addition to overseeing all areas of the strength & conditioning for the department. When he joined the staff, he was responsible for designing and implementing training programs for the baseball, volleyball, women’s soccer and women’s track & field teams.
Leech came to Rhode Island from Merrimack College, where he was an assistant strength and conditioning coach from August of 2015 through February of 2020. There he worked with the baseball, men’s basketball, football, women’s lacrosse and women’s track programs. He assisted in program implementation for 24 Division I teams while also coordinate and overseeing the undergraduate internship program for the Strength and Conditioning department.
Before his time at Merrimack, Leech was a graduate assistant in strength and conditioning at Springfield College. Leech also interned with the Strength and Conditioning departments at both Missouri and Brown. He is certified by the National Strength and Conditioning Association, is a level 2 practitioner in Reflexive Performance Reset and is CPR/AED/First Aid certified by the American Red Cross.
Leech earned his bachelor’s degree in Applied Exercise Science: Sport Performance from Springfield College in 2013. He added a master’s degree in Exercise Science and Sports Studies from Springfield College in 2015 and began work on a master’s degree in Data Science from Merrimack in 2019.
A football player at Springfield College, Leech was a team captain as a senior. He earned CoSIDA Academic All-District honors and was a member of the National Football Foundation Honor Society.
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