Total Hours for Week 12:  7

This week was a lot like the last week.  I helped Coach Ison with the conditioning workout on Monday and also helped him with the warm-ups and stretching.  In the weight room, I would set up the weight room and band workout stations.  I would also spot the athletes during their weight training and correct their form during the lifts if needed.  After each workout, I would make sure the weights were put back on their racks.

During the practices on the field this week, I helped Coach Ison with the warm-ups and stretching.  I also helped him with the drills that he ran.  At the end of the week, I assisted Coach Ison with stretching and band workouts.

Total Hours for Week 11:  7

This week was the first full week of camp.  On Monday, I helped Coach Ison with the warm-ups, stretching, and conditioning workout.  The athletes were going to be in the weight room on Tuesdays and Thursdays during camp.  On those days, I would set up anything that needed to be set up in the weight room and make sure that there were enough bands for athletes to do their band workouts.  We spotted the athletes during their workouts and showed them the proper technique if they needed instruction.  After each workout, I would make sure the weights were put back on their racks.

I would help Coach Ison with the warm-ups, stretches, and drills during the days we were on the practice field.  I would also help him when we did the stretches and band workouts to make sure the athletes were doing the exercises correctly.

One of the areas of improvement that I observed during my mentorship was that the location of the meeting rooms/coach’s offices/weight room and the practice field/locker rooms.  The weight room and coach’s offices are located on the Tiffin University campus and the practice field and locker rooms are located at the Paradiso Complex which is a few miles from campus.  One thing that I learned while I was working at Florida International University was that having all the facilities that the athletes use in the same building helped make a football program work well.  At FIU, the locker rooms, weight room, meeting rooms, and coach’s offices were at the football stadium where practice was held.  So, athletes could practice, lift, shower, and then come upstairs to meetings.  I think that the Tiffin football program could improve if all the facilities were located in the same place so athletes wouldn’t have to drive to a different location.

Total Hours for Week 10:  7

Coach Ison and I went through the plan for the weight room workouts during the team camp.  Coach Ison wanted to give a weight room orientation for any of the new players and to let all the athletes know what he expected of them in the weight room.  He went over the information he wanted to provide to the athletes.  Coach Ison gave me the workouts he wanted to do during camp and had me type them up.  He reviewed the workout and gave me some corrections to make.  I made the corrections and printed the weight room workouts and made enough copies for all the athletes.

August 9th was the first day of the team camp.  Coach Ison gave the weight room orientation.  We gave out the workouts and went through the lifts and exercises to make sure that all the athletes knew how to do them correctly.  We helped spot the athletes during the workout and made sure their form was correct when they were doing the lifts.  After the workout, I cleaned the weight room and put any weights that were left out back on their racks.  During practice this week, I helped with the warm-ups, stretches, and cool-downs.

The experiences during my mentorship relate to my academic studies because I have been able to work on my communication and management skills that I learned in my classes.  I have learned new skills during my mentorship like instruction of exercises in the weight room and then instruct athletes to do those exercises properly.  The management and communication skills I learned during my courses have helped me manage the weight room activities and communicate more effectively to the athletes I have helped train.

Total Hours for Week 9:  7

On Monday of this week, I met with Coach Ison to go over the upcoming team camp and the schedule of workouts that he wanted to do during camp.  We also went over my mentorship hours and what he wanted me to do during this week.  He wanted me to review online videos of stretches, drills and lifts that we could incorporate in the team camp. 

After I looked at some videos and got some ideas we talked about what we wanted to do in camp and what would be the most beneficial to the athletes.  We went over the drills and stretches to make sure that we could effectively teach the skills and explain them so the athletes could understand them.  I also reviewed some videos that demonstrated deadlifts and power cleans since these were two exercises that the athletes would be doing during their workouts.  Near the end of the week I cleaned the weight room and sanitized the equipment.