East Carolina University

by Mike Gentry, Srrength Coach at East Carolina University Daniel Cole: Freshman DB weighs 190 Ibs. has maxed our at 615 Ibs'li Notice the great form, especially lower back. Daniel is sguatting correctly' The aver;lge sguat on the team is 476 pounds.

Anthony Simpson: freshman fB benching~65. The average bench on the team is~2i1 pounds' Chris Durand deaning~ 19 pounds! The average hang dean and Dr. Greg Shepard 1 first became acguainted with Coach MikeGentry through Terry Long the extraordinary athlete at ECU featured in our special November 198" BFS Journal. The response to the article was super positive and 1 also started to follow fCU Pirate FoOtball. They finished in th.e top 20 in the United States and with another 10 or 20 points scored in the right place ECU could have possibly been ranked #1 in the nation and not Miami.

Now EaSt Carolina is certainly not the mecca of recruiting in the United States Even in their own state schools like Clemson, University of North Carolina, and North Carolina State University are extremely tough to recruit against My personal opinion is that the great blue chip athlete will not generally corne ro ECU and therefore super coaching and super conditioning must be in force in order to win. With there great success this year however, recruiting may become easier. Because I believe ECU has one of the very top college programs In America, J asked strength coach Mike Gentry to share his rotal program.

The goal of the EastCarolina University football strength and conditioning program is simple; ro help our athletes realize their physical potential through progressive weight rraining, improved flexibility and enhanced cardiovascular conditioning. The end result of this individual improvemenr is increased team performance on the field and more W's in the win column. While the thrust of this article is our strength program we try to avoid emphasizing weight training at the expense of flexibility training and our conditioning program. The emphasis placed on weight training and conditioning shifts periodically during the course of the year as we approach the comperitive season.

However, we never abandon our intensity in the weight room. flexibility is a constanr that is practiced year-round. We have enjoyed great success with our strength prugram in the past two years and have also been sLlccessful on the field. Success begets success, and each of these successes fuels the other Our players believe in our strength program and its methods, this confidence is crucial. Head Coach Ed Emory and his staff support rhe program IOO'A and rhis support too is crirical for rhe programs success Our players attack their work-ours and rrain by our strengrh morro "swear blood". They compere wirh each other in the work-ours.

We try to provide an armosphere of posiriveness and fosrer the spirit of comperirion in rhe weighr room. Our sports medicine people have verified rhe fact thar since insriruting rhis srrengrh and flexibiliry program our ream injuries have been fewer and less severe during the course of rhe season. I am enclosing a cOPl' of our awards sysrem rhar was very effecrive in morivaring our players during rhe off-season I like ir because ir doesn'r limir rhe awards to a selecr few, and encourages individual goal serring.

As I'm sure you are aware what I've done is rry to rake rhe Continued on Page .~4 ECU PIRATE FOOTBALL Continued From Page 32 best of powerlifting and Olympic lifting and combine them to try to make our athletes both stronger and more poweljuf.

We are trying to increase their base strength through exercises such as squats and bench presses and develop expLosive rotary hip drive through exercises such as hang cleans and push presseJ, Eeu OFF-SEASON STRENGTH TRAINING FOR FOOTBALL Greg Sutolohorsky OT 319 Push Press Team Average is .'>09 DIPS a great auxiliary exercise shown by Mike Gram Senior LB We emphasize the pre-spring or winter conditioning phase of our football strength training program, It is during these eight or nine weeks that we can devore the necessary time and energy to produce the desired size and strength gains In our players, We max test the players immediately prior to the start of winter conditioning We also do skinfold calibrations, take anthropometric measurements and measure the players vertical jump, At the cunclusion of winter conditioning, we will again perform these tests to evaluate the success of our program, Our goal is to increase overall body strength, explosive power, and muscularity, The core of our program is based on four lifts Bench Press Push Press Back Squats Hang Cleans The assistance exercise used in the program are: Close Grip Benches Weighted Dips Power Pulls Shrugs Front Squats Incline Bench Press Leg Curls Bem-Over Rows Curls Nautilus Neck Machine We feel we can increase base "strength"

levels through exercises such as bench presses and squats and from this base level of strength build our explosive power through exercises such as overhead push presses and hang cleans, The team is divided into offensive and defensive groups with each groups lifting rhree times per week on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Each lifting session lasts only one hour and a half.

We strive for short, intense workouts, Following each lifting session, the group goes through the flexibility program as a group and a period of rope jumping and agility drills, During the first 4- 5 weeks of our off-season program, we do 5 sets of 5 reps on our heavy days for the core exercises and 4 sets of 8 reps on our light day, In the last ,"-4 weeks of the program, we will do 5 sets of .'> reps on our heavy day and 4 sets of 5 reps on our light day for our core exercises, The object is to peak the athletes strength immediately prior to the beginning of spring football practice, ECU PIRATE FOOTBALL Cominued From Page)4 Super Buc 600 Buccaneer 575 Gold 5:25 Purple 450 RB& DB Jeff Pegues All-American OLB doing lying rriceps exrension wirh :210 Ibs.

Super Buc 545 Buccaneer 520 470 Gold Purple 195 Super Buc Buccaneer Gold Purple CJinr Harris Senior All-American Free Safery, doing from squars wirh)15 lbs I minure borh feer I minute right foor, lefr fom I minure alternare foor I minute shuffle "0 sec speed jump as many Jumps as you Gln in .-',0 sec ."0 sec. speed jump as many jumps as you can SUMMARY J like Coach Gentry's Program ,lnd philosophy. Ir is amazing how similar we are in concept. Probably rhe only difference is we do rhe dead lifr and Coach Centry does rhe push press. Please nore: schools like the University of Texas also do rhe push press.

However, for high school, we love rhe dead lift for irs intense and extremely benefici,lI mmivational value Congrarularions to the ECU Pirate foorball players, Head Coach Ed Emory, football scaff and srrengrh coach Mike Genrry for one of rhe mosr oursranding jobs in rhe hisrory of collegiare foorball 10 fulfilling your pore ntiaI cowards your quesr for grearness.

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Jeff Pegues again doing .~ 15 inclines.

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From BFS Magazine — March/April 1984. Part of the BFS Magazine Archive (1980–2014).