Saturday, January 5, 2019

Strength Coach Classic: Making Your Big Time: A Tribute to Frosty Westering

by Adam Feit - 
Over 300 wins, four national championships and a top 10 ranking among all-time college football coaches.
Now that's success!
Isn't it?
Those numbers belong to Frosty Westering, the longtime coach of the Division III Pacific Lutheran University Lutes, who recently passed away this April (2013). With numbers like that, you would be hard pressed to find anyone to say that he wasn't a great coach or didn't know how to win.
Wouldn't you?
While most individuals would associate winning records and championships with the definition of a successful coach, Frosty exemplified everything about success that wasn't just focused around game plans, scripts and high dollar recruiting budgets. Winning to him was just a by-product of two things, love and commitment. Frosty went into every battle with those two things as if they were his sword and shield and yet he always came out, victorious and unscathed from combat. Not bad for a guy that believed in singing before games and helping opponents up after putting them on their tails, right?
But I didn't know Frosty as a coach. I knew him as the author of one of the most influential books of not only my coaching career, but of every intern's, graduate assistant's and athletes that have ever been a part of my life; Make the Big Time Where You Are. A book that was recommended to me when I was an intern and one that will remain a staple in every “which book would you recommend” question I get for as long as I live.
If you're looking for the “Holy Grail” of program design, this is it. If you want the inside edge on others in this field, go ahead and place your order. But you won't find anything about sets, reps and multi-syllable, unpronounceable periodization schemes. Not even a hint of corrective exercise, primal flow, postural restoration. Not one. Zero. None.
So, what's the big deal?
While my coaching career of less than 10 years may be considered almost nil to many of you in this field, I've worked in almost every capacity as a strength and conditioning coach thus far. With stops as a student personal trainer, intern, GA, college assistant, head college coach, NFL assistant, and now “private sector coach” and business partner, my resume has more bullets points than a BB gun carnival game. But, does this mean I know what it takes to be successful?
I'll be the first one to tell you, not even close.
And Frosty's “Make the Big Time Where You Are” helped me understand that.
Unfortunately, a lot of us still set our sights on the end goal, our five and ten year plans. We look to the end of the road and define our success on how many championships we've won, how many zeroes at the end of our paychecks and possibly how many kids “we trained” that made it to the league. Instead of worrying about right now, we worry about what's next. Instead of taking care of the responsibilities we have now, we worry about the job we want next. Rather than accepting the role of a mentor, a leader and a positive influence on today's youth, we blame what we CAN'T do on inadequate facilities, lack of help and appreciation.....Join StrengthCoach.com today to read the rest of this article and much more!
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