Winter 1996 .

Lower Back Safety

Lower back injuries have caused many, many athletes to miss games and or seasons. These types of injuries have, in some cases, ended careers. Many times a muscle spasm in the lower back will occur just from bending over to pick up a ball. Lower back injuries can happen anyplace a

Football·1996

Off Season & Pregame Mental Preparation

As professionals in the field of strength and conditioning we constantly strive to find the right combination of variables to gain an edge in performance enhancement. We fly all over the country hoping to enrich our personal knowledge of training technique, methods of testing and

Hamstring Safety

Hamstring injuries can cause an athlete to miss a game or a whole season. Hamstring injuries in the off-season can ruin progress for weeks. Injuries to the Hamstring area have caused team losses in every sport and have been the cause of ending an athlete's career. I believe most,

Basketball·1996

"Juan" Big Sun Devil

Juan Roque (pronounced Ro-kay) is this year's largest Pac-10 lineman. Standing 6'8" and weighing 319 pounds, Juan is described as being Arizona State's best lineman since perennial pro bowler Randall McDaniel (1984-87). Juan was a first-team all-Pac-10 selection in 1995 and this

Deadlift·1996

Knee Safety

Knee injuries are among the most feared of athletic injuries and perhaps the least understood. Knee injuries have ended many careers, ended seasons and ended normal lifestyles. Many, if not most, knee injuries can be prevented and certainly their severity can be reduced. If a kne

Baseball·1996

THE SECRET

Baseball is the last frontier in the epic saga of strength and conditioning history. The first athletes to figure out the strength and conditioning "secret" were the throwers in track and field. As soon as the secret became widely known in the late 1960's, the marks for the Discu

Periodization Analysis

Last June, I attended the NSCA Convention in Atlanta. I was particularly interested in listening to Dr. Michael Stone's two-hour presentation on periodization. He really knows his stuff and I greatly respect his research and knowledge. Some coaches have expressed that BFS is fine

Baseball·1996

Jeff Popovich

"Popovich is like (Pro Bowl Player) Steve Tasker of the Buffalo Bills," said Butch Davis, head football coach of the nationally ranked Miami Hurricanes. "He's a terrific little athlete with a tremendous amount of fire. He's going to have a good career here." No, Jeff Popovich is

David Webber

David Webber is our 1996 Bigger Faster Stronger Athlete of the Year. He is from Hazelwood East High School in St. Louis, Missouri. David becomes the 17th recipient of our most prestigious award. Selections are based on athletic achievement in sports, the ability to overcome obsta

Adrian Luster

Editor's Note: Citadel strength coach, Jim Peal, and I met at the NSCA Conference last June. He said he had an amazingly strong player by the name of Adrian Luster. Indeed he did, and so it is a pleasure to bring you his story. Coach Peal has been at the Citadel, a Division I-AA

Miami Southridge

Last September I visited Miami Southridge High School and was dazzled. BFS Clinician Len Walencikowski and Southridge Spartan strength coach put on an awesome show with his Physical Education classes. There are nearly 4,000 students at Southridge and Coach Walencikowski has 560 o

Chris Butterfield

Out of all the hundreds of articles that I have ever done, this story of Chris Butterfield ranks as one of my favorites. He goes to Humboldt State University, a non-scholarship Divison-II School, and works as hard or harder than any Division-I player. Why? For the love of the gam

Basketball·1996

Navy Football

Goosebumps! That's what my wife and I felt as we drove over the Chesapeake Bay in late August. From the bridge we could see the buildings of the U.S. Naval Academy in Maryland's historic capital city of Annapolis which is only about 30 miles east of Washington D.C. The view was a