Today’s podcast features strength and performance coach, Ethan Reeve. Ethan is the director of strength and performance for MondoSport USA.  He is the former president of the CSCCa, and has 44 years of experience coaching in college and high school ranks.  In addition to decades in NCAA athletic performance, Reeve was a SEC champion wrestler, and was the head coach of the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga wrestling program from 1985 to 1990, achieving 5 Southern Conference titles in 6 years.

In the process of strength and conditioning/physical preparation; we can never get too far from the process of physical education and routinely observing the core qualities of athleticism

An interesting element in sport performance, and sport coaching in the past decades is that, compared to the pre-2000’s era, there are less coaches now who have physical education backgrounds.  Perhaps, this is because, as the industry moves forward, physical preparation/athletic performance has swung more towards the quantitative aspects, than the “art” form of the process.  Maybe it’s that most strength and conditioning jobs are working with high school or college athletes who are “further” along in their athletic development.  Maybe it’s how the role and funding for physical education has been devalued over time.  Despite all of this, as I get older, the more and more I realize just how much physical education has to offer, not only young athletes, but also the thought process in working with more established ones, and I believe physical education, and multi-sport coaching principles (such as wrestling in the scope of today’s show) should be far more common-place in athletic development conversations.

On today’s podcast, Ethan talks about his blend of the principles found in physical education and wrestling, and how these funnel into a sports performance training session.  He speaks on how he views physical training through the eyes of a wrestling coach (of which he was a very successful one) and the learning environment he looks to set up in his training sessions.  We discuss “belly up” speed training, key ground-based training movements, and other important principles of building a total athletic development program.

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Timestamps and Main Points
2:57 – Ethan’s journey physical education and wrestling training, and how that blended into his strength and conditioning practices

6:10 – The importance and correlation of integrating basic physical education movements, into sport performance training

12:41 – “Belly Up” movements transitioned into sprinting, for athletic development

19:31 – Examples of blending physical education principles into track and field and sport performance training settings

23:16 – Ethan’s take on how to be a better student of learning and teaching in one’s sport coaching process

35:10 – The importance of the total environment in the learning process for athletes

41:00 – How to use the 80/20 or 90/10 principle to help determine one’s core principles and focus in practice

46:19 – The intersection of what wrestling and track and field has to offer in terms of general physical preparation

54:42 – How Ethan views the role of the weight room from middle school, up until college in training

59:12 – Calisthenic, gymnastics, and rolls that Ethan feels great athletes can do well in the movement section of training

1:03:13 – Gymnastic, tumbling type work, and its impact on athlete mobility



Ethan Reeve Quotes
“(In physical education) We were taught dance,