A guide to career longevity - Lessons from 32 years as a strength coach with Joe Kenn

This week’s guest on the Pacey Performance Podcast is Joe Kenn, Vice President of Performance Education at Dynamic Fitness and Strength. Joe has 32 years’ experience in strength and conditioning coaching, including 19 years’ college experience, 16 years of head coaching experience at four major universities (University of Louisville, Arizona State, Wake Forest and University of Utah), and 9 years’ experience in the NHL as Head Strength and Conditioning Coach with the Carolina Panthers. As a result, there’s not a lot that Joe hasn’t seen or done.

He's here to talk about the changes he’s seen in strength and conditioning coaching over the past 3 decades, and where he thinks things are going. This includes how Joe started his college career as an Olympic sports strength coach before moving into football and subsequently the NFL. He explains what’s changed since then, as well a few things that have always remained the same. This includes the rise of specialised nutrition and mental health coaches, and advances in technology and sports science. There’s some insight too into how the ’hustle’ has changed for new coaches getting into the industry.

Joe also talks about his own programming style, and what he considers to be the basics of strength and conditioning coaching. He gives his opinion on the boom in speed training, and whether it’s come to detract from a more traditional coaching style. There’s also discussion into where loaded jumps fit into Joe’s programme, and how he prioritises certain exercises for individuals. For these insights and much more from someone who has personally coached in 10 sports throughout his career - and developed a programming model used in over 20 - hit the play button now.

This week’s topics:

• How Joe started out as a coach and what’s changed since then
• The rise of coach wellbeing
• Changes in technology and sports science
• How the ‘hustle’ has changed for coaches just starting out
• What ‘the basics’ are to Joe and how to do them well
• Joe’s opinion on whether speed training is detracting from traditional coaching
• Where loaded jumps fit into Joe’s programme
• Prioritising certain exercises for individuals
• The importance of programming in variation