Team Hallam S&C Blog Interview

Brief Overview

My name is Chris Smithson-Connelly, I am a graduate intern strength and conditioning coach with Team Hallam. I have been involved in strength and conditioning for nearly four years, where I have had various internship and volunteering positions with Baylor Athletic Performance, Sheffield United FC, Sheffield Hallam University Centre for Sport and Exercise Science, Barnsley Football Club Academy, HMT Cycling Team and Gainsborough Trinity Football Club.

What sports do you currently work with?

I’m currently leading the strength and conditioning programmes for the Rowing, Tennis and Canoe teams. Within all of these squads we have male and females of all abilities, and with varying experience in the gym and the sport they compete in. I also provide one to one support with a number of our performance athletes who compete to a high standard in Fencing, Archery, Table Tennis and Climbing. Outside of Team Hallam I work providing sport science support to a junior road cycling academy and I am also the strength and conditioning coach for a non-league football team.

How did you get into S&C?

I took a chance on an eight-week placement I was required to do as part of my undergrad course and went out to Waco, Texas to intern with Baylor universities Athletic Performance department. I had little experience working in a gym environment but had a desire to work in supporting athletes and this seemed like the best opportunity to test myself. Needless to say my time working under Kaz Kazadi and co was the experience of a lifetime, everyone involved in that programme while I was there has had some influence in my development as a coach and as a person. From then I've never looked back.

What is your philosophy for S&C training?

While it is ever-developing, my coaching philosophy has largely been underpinned by my experiences and learnings at Baylor and at Hallam. I have focused my coaching heavily on developing self-sufficient athletes. I feel it’s key for our student-athletes to take ownership of their training and we are working towards not only developing good athletes, but also good students and even better people. I think it’s important to remember we are working in a profession of human interactions and I believe that being able to understand and relate to your athletes is a key component of effective coaching. By providing athletes the opportunity to be involved in the decision making process of their programmes, our role at this standard is to support their training and assist the teams and their members where they require guidance.

Who are some of the main practitioners you recommend reading?

This is a tough one because there’s so many practitioners putting out such great content. Admittedly my reading tends to be a little more focused around those who come from more of an applied background rather than research based. Eric Cressey, Michael Boyle, Mike Robertson, Stuart McMillan and Ron McKeefery are to name but a few of those who put out great content. On top of that, some key texts which I have on my bookshelf include:

·         Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning- Baechle and Earle

·         Science and Practice of Strength Training- Zatisiorsky and Kraemer

·         Periodisation- Bompa and Haff

·         High-Performance Training for Sports- Joyce and Lewindon

·         Sports Injury: Prevention and Rehabilitation- Joyce and Lewindon

From there you also have the Pacey Performance Podcast by Rob Pacey, Historic Performance Podcast by James Darley and Central Virginia Sports Performance Podcast and video interviews by Jay DeMayo, as well as many more practitioners who provide a platform to learn from some of the world’s best in performance support.

What is your sporting background?

Like most I grew up playing football, I was never blessed with skill and unfortunately my hardworking attitude would only take me so far, the dreams of playing as a professional footballer never really took off. I continued to dip in and out of youth football and at the age of 15 got involved in a men's Sunday league team where I played for a good few years before going off to university. Throughout school I tried my hand at numerous sports and could probably be best described as a 'jack of all trades, master of none'. Now I play football where possible, and am becoming pretty handy around the golf course. In the coming weeks I'm going to attend a local baseball team’s offseason training sessions and see how I go with that, although I won't be holding my breath over a career in the major league!

What is your academic background?

I came to Sheffield Hallam University in 2011 where I began on an undergraduate degree in Sport Science for Performance Coaching, through this course I was able to access opportunities to gain experience in sport science and strength and conditioning related roles, most notably as a junior strength and conditioning intern working with the universities sports teams. In my final year I carried out a dissertation project that looked at what was required of an aspiring strength and conditioning coach to secure a full-time position in the UK, anything to avoid using a stats programme.

After graduating from my undergrad with a 2:1, I went straight into a part-time master's course at Hallam studying Applied Sport and Exercise Science. With a chance to further myself academically came the opportunity of more responsibility in the S&C internship, leading the strength and conditioning programme for the universities rowing team. I went on to complete my master's degree in the summer of 2016, where I was also able to secure my first S&C related contract as graduate intern strength and conditioning coach at Team Hallam. 

What advice would you give up and coming practitioners who would like to be in your position?

I know it’s common advice but the most important thing for me in my development has been working hard and keeping at it, and a lot of that comes from your desire to be involved in this profession. Strength and conditioning isn't a 9-5, Monday to Friday job. It's very early mornings, late nights, missing large parts of your weekend and working in limited periods of time, and honestly it's great. The chances are that you're going to be balancing an internship or volunteering opportunity alongside further education, part/full time work and social and family life.

The other most important thing is take opportunities when they arise and create them where possible. There is no better way of furthering yourself as S&C coach than being immersed in the industry, even if it's helping someone carry out a testing battery, set up for a session or observing them deliver. The experiences and chance to interact with those who work in the profession will go a long way. There's also no harm in reaching out to a local sports team or an individual who partakes in recreational sport and offering to deliver a warm up, or field/gym based session for them as a bit of experience. It provides a good hands on learning opportunity.

What is your favourite aspect of working in Team Hallam?

Having been involved with programme for the past 3 years, I think it provides the perfect base of development for an aspiring S&C coach such as myself. I started off as a junior intern, observing the delivery of sessions and being allowed to lead on the odd warm up here and there, spending time with the student-athletes and coaches. From there I progressed to a lead intern where I was able to take lead on the delivery of sessions to the American Football and Rowing squads. Finally progressing to a paid graduate intern, where I am lead on 4 programmes, as well as assisting with our performance athletes and get to help those who are coming through as junior and lead interns.

It’s a great environment to be in as an aspiring coach, and I think our student-athletes can feel that as well. We have a programme which provides support to so many teams, and it’s great to see how much buy-in we have had across the programmes. You have men and women who have massively varying experiences within their respective sports, as well as those who had never been in a gym to those who have a couple years of gym based training experience and have been involved in NGB funded programmes. I think it’s a testament to those who have put the time and effort in, past and present to get this programme to where it is today.

Where would you like to be in 5 years?

First of all, I’d definitely like to have my UKSCA accreditation. I have my assessment day in the coming months and I’ve not been looking too far beyond that for the time being. Further than that, it’s tough because I am currently working in three very different positions with three very different set of athletes at three different standards of competition, but I really enjoy each position and get so much out of them. I’m going to continue taking my career one step at a time, focusing on developing myself as a coach and practitioner as much as I can and continue taking on whatever opportunity arises and I’ll see where it takes me.