Veteran Strength and Conditioning Coach for the Miami Heat of the National Basketball Association (NBA), Bill Foran, joins the NSCA Coaching Podcast and reflects on a more than four-decade coaching career. Foran discusses his early beginnings teaching elementary school physical education, with NSCA Coaching and Sport Science Program Manager Eric McMahon, and what led him towards pursuing collegiate and professional sports strength and conditioning. Foran shares stories of resourcefulness from the early days, before the strength and conditioning field was formally defined, up to more recent years using sport science technology and foundational core principles to inform training practices for elite NBA players, such as Lebron James and Shaquille O’Neal. This episode is informative for strength and conditioning coaches at any level, emphasizing the importance of building lasting relationships with athletes and head coaches, as well as taking advantage of all that the NSCA has to offer.
Reach out to Coach Foran at by email at bforan@heat.com | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs or Twitter: @ericmcmahoncscs
Learn more about NBA strength and conditioning with the National Basketball Strength and Conditioning Association (NBSCA), an Official Sport Partner of the NSCA.
Show Notes
“And I learned right then I enjoyed developing athletes a lot more than the Xs and Os of the game.” 3:05
“I was trying to get across the importance of leg, hip, core strength, but we didn't have the testing, how to test for power back then. We didn't have that. So I came up with a quotient called the power quotient, and it was just the square root of their vertical jump in inches times the square root of their body weight in pounds. And basically it was just a number where I could rank people.” 9:43
“You get your degree, you get your certifications, get as much experience as possible either as a GA, an intern, or work for free, whatever it is. You need that experience, and then you need to network, network, network.” 23:15
“But the big thing is, you've got to show the athletes you care. Connect with them at the personal level, but when they know you care and you're willing to work, that's the other thing, outwork everybody. If you show them you care and outwork everybody, you're on your way.” 23:33
