Utah Tech University Athletics

Dixie State Strength & Conditioning Philosophy

Our philosophy for our Strength and Conditioning program here at Dixie State is a three part system based in both scientific research and practical experience in order to provide our student athletes with the best possible experience in order to ensure their success on and off the field or court.

Injury Prevention. Our number one goal as a staff is to reduce the occurrence of injuries in both practice and competition.  Nobody cares how strong, fast, or powerful an athlete is if their injuries constantly keep them on the sideline.  We strive to accomplish this in many different ways and in working with support of our Sports Medicine staff to ensure athletes have proper flexibility, joint mobility and stability, movement patterns and mechanics, as well as ensure proper warm up prior to training or competing and proper recovery between training or competition bouts.  We implement many different flexibility, mobility, and stability drills into our warm ups and training sessions as well emphasize tissue quality and recovery using foam rolling and many other scientifically supported methods.  By emphasizing this approach we are able to decrease the occurrence of injury and keep our best athletes on the field and able to compete at their highest level to help their teams succeed.

Sports Performance. Our second goal is to utilize different modalities of resistance training, Olympic lifting, speed, agility, and plyometric training, as well as specific energy system development to improve athletic performance on the field or court for that athlete’s chosen sport.  Each strength program is designed specifically for that sport in order to train the specific qualities and energy systems needed to excel in that sport, as well as to decrease the injuries most common to that sport.  To increase strength we will implement many different types of resistance training exercises including squatting, pressing, pulling, posterior chain hip and knee dominant exercises, and core.  We also put a strong emphasis on unilateral strength training both upper and lower limbs in a single arm or leg pattern to directly improve a more specific sport related strength demand on the athlete.  To improve power we use a combination of Olympic lifting, plyometrics and jumping, medicine balls, and dynamic effort method resistance training to improve the rate of force development of the athlete in both upper body and lower body movements.  Speed and agility training drills are also implemented to improve proper acceleration and change of direction mechanics to improve the athletes overall athleticism.  Our goal is to use these different modalities to create the best possible athlete specific to their sport, not the best weightlifter.  Using these methods and implementing them in the proper way ensure our athletes have the tools to improve on the field or court throughout their time as a Dixie State student athlete.

Mental Discipline. Our third and final goal for our student athletes is to improve their mental discipline.  As a staff we strive to implement a high level of expectations from ourselves, as well as our athletes in order to ensure they reach their highest potential on the field or court.  Dedication, discipline, sacrifice, focus, commitment, and hard work are all vital qualities for an athlete and a team to possess if they want to be successful.  A positive attitude and a high level of effort are expected at all times during training sessions and should be used in all aspects of the student athletes’ life.  Our goal is not only to produce successful disciplined athletes, but successful disciplined young men and women.  When an athlete’s eligibility is exhausted, the skills they have learned by being a Dixie State student athlete will help them to be successful in the next phase of their life.

Using these three goals as the main points in our philosophy allows our coaching staff to push our athletes to achieve their highest potential, while working to avoid injuries, as well as emphasizing the total development of the student athlete as an athlete, teammate, community member, and person.


 
Technique Effort Attitude Mental Discipline