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Terry and Jan Todd Series on Physical Culture and Sports
Strength Coaching in America: A History of the Innovation That Transformed Sports
It’s hard to imagine, but as late as the 1950s, athletes could get kicked off a team if they were caught lifting weights. Coaches had long believed that strength training would slow down a player. Muscle was perceived as a bulky burden; training emphasized speed and strategy, not “brute” strength. Fast forward to today: the highest-paid strength and conditioning coaches can now earn $700,000 a year. Strength Coaching in America delivers the fascinating history behind this revolutionary shift.
College football represents a key turning point in this story, and the authors provide vivid details of strength training’s impact on the gridiron, most significantly when University of Nebraska football coach Bob Devaney hired Boyd Epley as a strength coach in 1969. National championships for the Huskers soon followed, leading Epley to launch the game-changing National Strength Coaches Association. Dozens of other influences are explored with equal verve, from the iconic Milo Barbell Company to the wildly popular fitness magazines that challenged physicians’ warnings against strenuous exercise. Charting the rise of a new athletic profession, Strength Coaching in America captures an important transformation in the culture of American sport.
College football represents a key turning point in this story, and the authors provide vivid details of strength training’s impact on the gridiron, most significantly when University of Nebraska football coach Bob Devaney hired Boyd Epley as a strength coach in 1969. National championships for the Huskers soon followed, leading Epley to launch the game-changing National Strength Coaches Association. Dozens of other influences are explored with equal verve, from the iconic Milo Barbell Company to the wildly popular fitness magazines that challenged physicians’ warnings against strenuous exercise. Charting the rise of a new athletic profession, Strength Coaching in America captures an important transformation in the culture of American sport.
344 pages, Hardcover
Published December 13, 2019
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May 27, 2020
Shortlisted for the North American Society of Sports History Prize for the Best Monograph in Sports History, 2020.
One of the most distinctive transformations of the academic study of sport in the last 15 years or so has been the explosion in degree courses in strength and conditioning coaching at the expense of more generic studies in sport science. To a large degree, this impressive exploration of the debates around and the emergence of strength coaching explains why that change has come about – without ever mentioning specialist degree courses but devoting a considerable part of the later sections to credentialisation and professional accreditation.
The authors build their argument in three key stages, spanning the late 19th to early 21st centuries. They open with popular and medical attitudes to strength building and notions of the unhealthiness of excessive musculature. This is followed by an analysis of shifts in the 1920s and ‘30s looking at the rise of strength development in gyms and through the rise of cultures of strength alongside changes in medical and other scientific research highlighting both the rehabilitative and performance potential of muscle-building. This discussion of scientific research continues into the 1960s along with a growing recognition of strength as a sport performance factor, partly in response to Soviet work in the area. In this section the dual strands of this second phase in the inter-war period are woven together. The third stage then is the institutionalisation of strength coaching, primarily through the National Strength & Conditioning Assoc.
The book shifts in tone for the final section, the question of institutionalisation. Although the Todd’s were notable players in several of the developments around the NSCA, they bring the sceptical eye of good scholars to that work. In doing so they note the organisation’s rapid growth in numbers and the relative distancing from its initial key constituency, performance sport strength coaches. Alongside this they also note that credentialisation is as much a business issue as it is professional, and accordingly that the plethora of credentials must be understood as a financial question for those organisations as it is a question of professional competency. These are vital questions in understanding how and why credentialisation develops, and the role of professional bodies. Critiques of this kind are quite properly mitigated by the extensive work of the NSCA in promoting scholarly research, in pushing researchers to emphasise the application potential of their work and in building strong constituencies across the wide range of practitioners in the strength and conditioning field.
Much of the rest of the book is a compelling narrative history, and while retaining the sceptical edge of scholarship does not have the obvious critique of the final stage of the argument (or it might be that the kind of institutional critique here fits better with some of my teaching work so I better recognise it). One of the strong points throughout however is the question of generational knowledge development and retention, and the need for ways to ensure that practitioners not only have access to recent scholarship but that they have the time to develop that knowledge into their work. A point made repeatedly is that many coaches work with the style and knowledge of their coaches, hence the need for training programmes and for scholars to highlight the application potential of their work.
All in all, then, this is a valuable, compelling and provocative analysis of strength training and knowledge systems underpinning performance sport in the USA. It will hopefully provoke similar studies in other areas – western Europe and the former Soviet bloc in particular – that will encourage comparative and transnational analyses. In the meantime, it is a powerful case for the significance of strength coaching as a key factor in the changes in sport performance.
One of the most distinctive transformations of the academic study of sport in the last 15 years or so has been the explosion in degree courses in strength and conditioning coaching at the expense of more generic studies in sport science. To a large degree, this impressive exploration of the debates around and the emergence of strength coaching explains why that change has come about – without ever mentioning specialist degree courses but devoting a considerable part of the later sections to credentialisation and professional accreditation.
The authors build their argument in three key stages, spanning the late 19th to early 21st centuries. They open with popular and medical attitudes to strength building and notions of the unhealthiness of excessive musculature. This is followed by an analysis of shifts in the 1920s and ‘30s looking at the rise of strength development in gyms and through the rise of cultures of strength alongside changes in medical and other scientific research highlighting both the rehabilitative and performance potential of muscle-building. This discussion of scientific research continues into the 1960s along with a growing recognition of strength as a sport performance factor, partly in response to Soviet work in the area. In this section the dual strands of this second phase in the inter-war period are woven together. The third stage then is the institutionalisation of strength coaching, primarily through the National Strength & Conditioning Assoc.
The book shifts in tone for the final section, the question of institutionalisation. Although the Todd’s were notable players in several of the developments around the NSCA, they bring the sceptical eye of good scholars to that work. In doing so they note the organisation’s rapid growth in numbers and the relative distancing from its initial key constituency, performance sport strength coaches. Alongside this they also note that credentialisation is as much a business issue as it is professional, and accordingly that the plethora of credentials must be understood as a financial question for those organisations as it is a question of professional competency. These are vital questions in understanding how and why credentialisation develops, and the role of professional bodies. Critiques of this kind are quite properly mitigated by the extensive work of the NSCA in promoting scholarly research, in pushing researchers to emphasise the application potential of their work and in building strong constituencies across the wide range of practitioners in the strength and conditioning field.
Much of the rest of the book is a compelling narrative history, and while retaining the sceptical edge of scholarship does not have the obvious critique of the final stage of the argument (or it might be that the kind of institutional critique here fits better with some of my teaching work so I better recognise it). One of the strong points throughout however is the question of generational knowledge development and retention, and the need for ways to ensure that practitioners not only have access to recent scholarship but that they have the time to develop that knowledge into their work. A point made repeatedly is that many coaches work with the style and knowledge of their coaches, hence the need for training programmes and for scholars to highlight the application potential of their work.
All in all, then, this is a valuable, compelling and provocative analysis of strength training and knowledge systems underpinning performance sport in the USA. It will hopefully provoke similar studies in other areas – western Europe and the former Soviet bloc in particular – that will encourage comparative and transnational analyses. In the meantime, it is a powerful case for the significance of strength coaching as a key factor in the changes in sport performance.
June 4, 2021
the whole "jan and terry todd series" of physical culture books that ut press has been publishing is good, and this entry - written by the todds plus jason shurley - is no exception.
since i'm deep in the weeds in this particular field, i'll give you a high-level overview of the pros and cons.
pros: the discussion of the transition from 19th c strength coaching to mid 20th c muscle mags to the development of strength coaching as a semi-rigorous profession is extremely well done. the terry todd bio reprinted at the end is also interesting given how much stuff that guy packed into an 80-year life (someone should package all his Sports Illustrated writing into an essay collection and dump it onto the market, perhaps into this series...he was a big name in the late 70s and early 80s, and like so many writers, when he didn't need to do as much stuff, when he could focus on his "personal" work like building the stark center, he receded from the scene).
cons: the second half of the second to the last chapter and the last chapter are both very disorganized, almost a cluster of citations trying to summarize innumerable trends. strength coaching, indeed the fitness field in general, expands significantly, and the todds + shurley are right in the thick of it, so i wouldn't expect them to be able to see the forest through all the redwoods around them. separate works are needed to address the various intra-disciplinary training methodology clashes, advances in equipment, growth of the fitness industry, growth of each particular sector of the sports science world, etc. also, despite terry todd's early influence (at least for me) as someone who laid the groundwork for covering PEDs via some of his work in SI, the book downplays the impact of anabolic steroids (definitely THE athletic innovation of the century) in favor of strength coaching (important, but hardly the thing itself - world records have been set on diets heavy in testosterone, dry instant grits for gut fill + hemorrhoid prevention, and heavy deadlift singles).
at any rate, it's short enough to read in 3-4 hours on a saturday or sunday. check it out if you're interested. the footnotes and bibliography will direct you to many other worthwhile volumes (or you could just check out www.oliverbateman.com ... no difference, really). john fair's "mr. america" book is still the best in this series, and among the best books on muscle culture that i've ever read, so check that out before this one, if you haven't already read it. randy roach's "muscle, smoke, and mirrors" 2-volume set is also a must-read.
since i'm deep in the weeds in this particular field, i'll give you a high-level overview of the pros and cons.
pros: the discussion of the transition from 19th c strength coaching to mid 20th c muscle mags to the development of strength coaching as a semi-rigorous profession is extremely well done. the terry todd bio reprinted at the end is also interesting given how much stuff that guy packed into an 80-year life (someone should package all his Sports Illustrated writing into an essay collection and dump it onto the market, perhaps into this series...he was a big name in the late 70s and early 80s, and like so many writers, when he didn't need to do as much stuff, when he could focus on his "personal" work like building the stark center, he receded from the scene).
cons: the second half of the second to the last chapter and the last chapter are both very disorganized, almost a cluster of citations trying to summarize innumerable trends. strength coaching, indeed the fitness field in general, expands significantly, and the todds + shurley are right in the thick of it, so i wouldn't expect them to be able to see the forest through all the redwoods around them. separate works are needed to address the various intra-disciplinary training methodology clashes, advances in equipment, growth of the fitness industry, growth of each particular sector of the sports science world, etc. also, despite terry todd's early influence (at least for me) as someone who laid the groundwork for covering PEDs via some of his work in SI, the book downplays the impact of anabolic steroids (definitely THE athletic innovation of the century) in favor of strength coaching (important, but hardly the thing itself - world records have been set on diets heavy in testosterone, dry instant grits for gut fill + hemorrhoid prevention, and heavy deadlift singles).
at any rate, it's short enough to read in 3-4 hours on a saturday or sunday. check it out if you're interested. the footnotes and bibliography will direct you to many other worthwhile volumes (or you could just check out www.oliverbateman.com ... no difference, really). john fair's "mr. america" book is still the best in this series, and among the best books on muscle culture that i've ever read, so check that out before this one, if you haven't already read it. randy roach's "muscle, smoke, and mirrors" 2-volume set is also a must-read.
May 28, 2020
A great read for anyone interested in the iron game, the history of strength, and more specifically strength coaching. The book starts with the history of lifting things through time and the ever-present idea that lifting weights is bad for you and/or will make you inflexible and "muscle-bound". It's funny that this idea can still be heard now and then by the uniformed. I've seen this especially in the world of martial arts. Next we move into the era of the muscle magazines of the 40s and 50s. Here, men who lifted weights challenged the ideals of the risk of lifting heavy things. We then move into the era of scientific study of the benefits of weight training as the anecdotal evidence of the 50s begins to play out in the 60s. College football teams who trained with weights were proving with their win-loss record that bigger and stronger also meant faster and better. The same proved true for Olympic and professional athletes. Next came the fitness wave of the 80s as the general population caught up with the pros. The book touches on the debate about machines vs barbells, the rise of "functional fitness" and the present state of strength coaching in America.
I expected the book to be a "dry" read, like reading any history text but it really wasn't. It was fascinating to travel through time exploring history through the lens of strength. I found it interesting that throughout history there was a fascination with muscles, using Greek gods on medals and trophies for things, yet a resistance to doing the one thing that would achieve that physique in lifting heavy weights.
The addition of Jan Todd to this book is evident in the inclusion of women in just about every chapter. The Todds are the original power couple and Jan is one special woman. It's amazing that even today the idea of the female bodybuilder is what gets thrown around with women and weight-lifting. The idea of becoming "too muscular" and doing light weights for high reps to become "toned" is ever present, no matter how erroneous. It's like when men say they don't want to lift because they don't want to look like Ronnie Coleman, don't worry...you won't.
What else is crazy is that we've really only been doing scientific studies on weight training for a little over 50 years. In other words, we're still learning. Even less of that time has been spent studying weight training and women. What can be said is that strength training with proper form, typically under the supervision of an experienced coach (at least to start) and with slow, steady progress is safe and very good for you. As Terry Todd famously said, "It's a good life if you don't weaken". Amen.
My only gripe with the book was it was too short. You know you're reading a well researched book when half the book is a list of references. Still, what was there was great!
I expected the book to be a "dry" read, like reading any history text but it really wasn't. It was fascinating to travel through time exploring history through the lens of strength. I found it interesting that throughout history there was a fascination with muscles, using Greek gods on medals and trophies for things, yet a resistance to doing the one thing that would achieve that physique in lifting heavy weights.
The addition of Jan Todd to this book is evident in the inclusion of women in just about every chapter. The Todds are the original power couple and Jan is one special woman. It's amazing that even today the idea of the female bodybuilder is what gets thrown around with women and weight-lifting. The idea of becoming "too muscular" and doing light weights for high reps to become "toned" is ever present, no matter how erroneous. It's like when men say they don't want to lift because they don't want to look like Ronnie Coleman, don't worry...you won't.
What else is crazy is that we've really only been doing scientific studies on weight training for a little over 50 years. In other words, we're still learning. Even less of that time has been spent studying weight training and women. What can be said is that strength training with proper form, typically under the supervision of an experienced coach (at least to start) and with slow, steady progress is safe and very good for you. As Terry Todd famously said, "It's a good life if you don't weaken". Amen.
My only gripe with the book was it was too short. You know you're reading a well researched book when half the book is a list of references. Still, what was there was great!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews