NSCA’s Coaching Podcast, Episode 102: Drew Hammond

Drew Hammond, Army Holistic Health and Fitness (H2F) Program Director at Fort Bragg, talks to the NSCA Coaching and Sport Science Program Manager, Eric McMahon, about differences between tactical and collegiate strength and conditioning. Topics include the Army H2F Program, tactical athlete programming, and how to pursue military strength and conditioning positions.

Find Drew on LinkedIn: Drew Hammond | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs or Twitter: @ericmcmahoncscs

Show Notes

“But I think the most unique part about it in hindsight, and this is what I tell people getting into the field, is that I was born and raised in a non-American strength and conditioning system. So some of the decisions that I make now, some of the conversations we will probably get into here, I think are based off of not having grown up professionally in the traditional route, collegiate professional sports stateside.” 2:41

“And so the attempt of H2F is to again, replicate that model, but on a much broader scale. So instead of dealing with a group of maybe 100 athletes that at a very specialized unit, you're now dealing with hundreds, if not thousands of athletes.” 5:34

“And those are things that I think a lot of guys in this industry struggle with because we're still thinking of this problem in a traditional paradigm, where macro cycles, mesocycles, micro cycles, undulating-- all these buzzwords that we all know. But I think one thing that we haven't really thought through or been equipped to think through, is this critical thinking piece of-- if none of these things hold true that I think should fit into this model, how do I react to that? What does my training look like?” 11:14

“But what I found was that there are ways to influence the development of an athlete beyond reps and sets.” 18:20

“I mean, I was fortunate in my previous position, to have an excellent relationship with my injury prevention folks. And there were days where we would be working side by side on the floor with an athlete and you couldn't really differentiate between who is the strength coach, who is the athletic trainer. And I think that's ideal.” 22:33