Inside the raptor room at the JBSA-Lackland Medina Annex, a Michigan State University coach, stood in front of a classroom Feb. 1 that was filled with some of the best and brightest the Air Force has to offer, Tactical Air Control Party instructors.
“It’s like a dream come true to come down here and coach these guys,” declared Tim “Red” Wakeham, strength and conditioning coach. “I didn’t know what I could add, I just hope I added value to the training program.”
The coach began by sharing his knowledge and training in Kinesiology, the scientific study of human movement, which the TACP instructors are not formally trained in.
“The most important thing about weight training is that it’s progressive,” said Wakeham. “The idea of progressive overload is absolutely critical.”
Progressive overload means more weight is being lifted every workout. For example, if an athlete starts out doing 10 repetitions with 100 lbs., then during the next workout that person would do 10 repetitions with 110 lbs. If the individual is unable to complete a full set of repetitions with the new weight then he/she would keep trying every workout until 10 repetitions are properly performed before increasing the weight again.
An essential part of progressive overload is recording the results of each lift to ensure that the next workouts weight or repetitions are increased, imparted Wakeham.
“What gets measured, gets done,” Wakeham added.
Moving on from the technical aspect of lifting to the coaching side, Wakeham began to elaborate on what he calls the “Three C’s”: caring, competence and control.
“You have to show them that you care and they’ll be that much more invested in what you’re trying to do.,” Wakeham said. “If they had surgery, I was at the surgery.”
The second “C” is competence, which means giving students skills to perform well and giving them confidence, Wakeham explained.
Wakeham described his weight room as his “stage” and said every time the athletes did something correctly or well he would praise them.
“When you point out the things they do well you fill them with confidence,” he elaborated.
The third “C”, control, involves giving students a perception of control.
“Do you want to come in at 6:00 or 6:15?” said Wakeham. “Well, that’s not much of a choice, but it gives them the idea that they’re in control. They have to weigh in before they can buy in.”
After the classroom portion of Wakeham’s visit was over, the group moved to the battle room, the weight room used by TACP students and instructors where Wakeham demonstrated some manual resistance exercises to help improve TACP’s weight training curriculum.
“He showed us things to correct in order to help us produce better TACPs,” said Staff Sgt. Matthew R. Renner, 342nd Training Squadron TACP instructor.
Renner learned more leadership and coaching skills he could use to both train also pass on to his students, he said.
“Some of his philosophies are the same as ours; we both want to build champions, guys … become leaders,” said Renner.
When the session concluded, Wakeham left the instructors with some final words of wisdom: “You’re training men, not just bodies.”
“There’s still work that can be done, we can definitely dive in a little deeper and I hope the relationship continues,” Wakeham added.
This story was originally posted to the JBSA website on Feb. 6, 2017 and may be found at:
http://www.jbsa.mil/News/News/Article/1072230/michigan-state-university-coach-helps-enhance-tacp-instructors-leadership-coach/
| Date Taken: | 02.06.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 01.10.2018 11:08 |
| Story ID: | 261742 |
| Location: | SAN ANTONIO, TX, US |
| Hometown: | SAN ANTONIO, TX, US |
| Web Views: | 34 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Michigan State University coach helps enhance TACP instructors’ leadership, coaching skills, by A1C Dillon Parker, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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