WEST POINT — Carl Middleton has seen weight training and conditioning evolve from doing three sets on the bench press and running wind sprints into something much bigger.
As regional sales manager of Total Strength and Speed, which is based out of Columbia, South Carolina, Middleton works to educate coaches and student-athletes about how to use equipment and training methods to get the most out of their workouts. The company he works for also played an integral role in helping the West Point High School football team furnished the weight room in its new field house.
On Thursday and Friday, Middleton, who lives in West Point and has worked for eight years as an assistant football coach for Oak Hill Academy, will offer a glimpse of what his company does as part of a TS&S Athletic Performance Clinic at West Point High.
“Strength training has changed so much,” said Middleton, who is in his 12th year with Total Strength & Speed. “It is now training the athlete not only for strength and power, but also for endurance, flexibility, and a lot of things that will help keep the athletes safe. Guys are getting stronger and the impacts are getting bigger, so you really have to train athletes, in all sports, too.”
Middleton said Total Strength & Speed also helped build a facility in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. He said the construction of the field house at West Point High served as an ideal way to introduce the training techniques and programs to coaches and student-athletes in the area. He said he hopes to make the clinic an annual event.
The clinic will focus on subjects like how to set up a high school strength program for all sports, how to create the best mental environment for reaching goals in the weight room, training for speed and balance, how to incorporate the Tsunami Bar into your program, and more. Guest speakers will include Nick Savage, the head strength coach at Mississippi State; Mike Gentry, a former strength coach at Virginia Tech and a member of the USA Collegiate Strength and Conditioning Hall of Fame; Josh Nibblet, the head football coach at Hoover (Ala.) High; Ken Taylor, a former strength coach at South Carolina and the owner of Ken Taylor Fitness; and Mike Golden, the head strength coach at Arkansas Tech.
VJ Trolio, a teaching professional at Old Waverly who is certified by the Titleist Performance Institute, also will be a guest speaker.
The clinic is limited to the first 100 to register. Check-in will be from 1-1:30 p.m. Thursday. The clinic will run from 1:30-5 p.m. Thursday at West Point High. Dinner at 6:30 p.m. at Anthony’s will be included. The clinic will run from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday. Coaches and speakers will provide demonstrations of workouts, while West Point High student-athletes will serve as demonstrators. The cost is $99.
“We’re trying to help connect and educate these high school strength coaches with some collegiate-type strength training and share information, especially some of the new state-of-the-art facility like this one here in West Point,” Middleton said. “We want them to see how West Point works out because they kind of do it like people should be doing it.
“The biggest thing we want to do with our company is create relationships. Not only are we equipping, but we also are educating. This is a part of the process where we can establish relationships.”
There also will be an optional golf outing Saturday morning at Old Waverly. MSU will offer Continuing Education Units (CEUs) for participation in the clinic. For more information and to register, go to www.totalstrengthandspeed.com.
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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