Carleton 5th in NCAA DIII Women's Team Race; St. Olaf 21st, St. Thomas 22nd.

  Women's Results HERE. Carleton women's summary HERE; St. Olaf HERE; St. Thomas-no summary available
Men's Results HERE Carleton 10th, Summary HERE

Dan Bucy One of Four New Members Inducted into Carleton Sports HOF

Dan Bucy new Carleton HOF member 

New members for the C Club Hall of Fame inducted this weekend.  Press release HERE.

Jim Jarvis Helps Two Carleton Athletes Win NCAA Titles

Jim Jarvis and Kao Sutton during indoor season.

Jim Jarvis is on the leading edge of a trend to integrate Strength and Conditioning programs into sports. Jarvis' bio is HERE.  Below he talks about working with NCAA champs Amelia Campbell and Tao Sutton at Carleton.

Down the Backstretch:  I don’t know if it’s a trend or just something athletes haven’t talked about or had available to them in the past, but this year at least four Minnesota athletes have worked with strength and conditioning coaches and gave them at least partial credit for their success.  

I gather from talking with Amelia Campbell that you work primarily with the football team, but also help out athletes in other sports.  How did you end up at Carleton and, what do you do to help the athletes be more successful?

Jim Jarvis: I actually came to Carleton because of the amount of teams and variety that I would get to work with. I currently work with every Varsity sport at Carleton.  It may seem that I work with football the most, but that is because they are the largest team on campus and also work with me the most. 

I ended up Carleton after spending two years at the University of Minnesota, Morris as their Head Strength and conditioning Coach and developing their first strength and conditioning program.  After those two years I went to Northern State University in Aberdeen, SD.  I spent two years out there as a graduate assistant coach in order to obtain my master's degree to further my career.  

I then found out about the opening at Carleton College and started my position in the middle of the summer.  One of the most important aspects of having a head strength and conditioning coach is that even though all of the workouts are voluntary having someone in the weight room gives a certain amount of accountability.  

Giving that accountability gives them a reason to make sure to get into the weight room, which will create consistency, which is the most important aspect within strength and conditioning.  Within my position I develop year-round lifting programs as well as year conditioning, speed, and agility programs depending on the time of year.

DtB:  When most people see “strength and conditioning” they think of the weight room, lifting equipment, and barbells.  But the field is a bit broader than that I suspect.  When a track athlete comes to you for help, do you do tests, evaluation of their strengths and weaknesses?  How do you go about developing a program for them?

JJ: The first thing is to determine their experience level with lifting and then developing an initial program with them from there.  After the initial period of getting them into the lifting program, the program starts to get more specific for that athlete and their events.  When I do test the athletes I test them in performance tests to make sure their speed, lower body power, and upper body power.  These tests will transfer to their events more than any other.

DtB:  One of the abilities of great athletes is that they are able to absorb information on what they need to do to improve and apply them to their training.  Has this been true for Amelia and Kao?  Any specific examples of things that was beneficial to them?

JJ:  Yes and no, one of the main things was that they each needed to build a base of lower body power.  The analogy that I always make is that they had the Ferrari frame, I just helped them get the engine in.  Meaning that they had the basic strength levels and they just needed some more power.

DtB:  Amelia said that she “gave back” a bit by helping teach the football players how to run better, be more efficient.  Do you find this sort of situation often, where somebody comes to the program for things that can benefit them, but also gives back by teaching others about things they do very well?

JJ:  Not really, Amelia has a very special gift in that she understands speed development,  and I asked her if she would want to help me out and do some speed development with the football team, she was extremely excited to help out with that.  There have been other times where some other athletes have stuck around to help out here and there, but none as much as Amelia.  My intern/student assistant is a football player who is thinking about going into the strength and conditioning field.  He has helped out a lot with that.

DtB:  The common perception of strength and conditioning is that it primarily involves weight lifting or increasing one’s strength, but in reality it is broader than that, I would guess.  That you teach efficiency of movement as well as ways to get stronger, as the primary goal is to make what the top athletes do easier.  Is that an accurate assessment?

JJ:  The most important part of strength and conditioning is injury prevention.  After that then we start to worry about performance and increasing strength.  More importantly than strength is power.  Strength is more about how much weight or force a person can produce.  Power is more about how fast a person can produce force, this is much more important in athletics as there are not many times an athlete can move slow and produce maximal force over a long period of time (think Squat, Deadlift, Bench).  However, an athlete that can produce maximal force over a short period of time would be able to produce maximal power (clean, jerk, snatch, plyometrics) (long jump, high jump, shot, discus).

DtB:  Often athletes who are injury prone or who have lost training time to injuries try out strength and conditioning programs to help them build up a “buffer” that hopefully will help them avoid major injuries.  Do you encounter a lot of that—athletes coming to you primarily for injury prevention, and how do you deal with it?

JJ:  For every athlete the most important thing is injury prevention, there are multiple ways to deal with it depending on the injury, the severity of injury, and the length of time since the injury.

DtB:  The “gym culture” used to primarily male and usually bodybuilders or athletes who were in sports or events that placed a premium on size and strength.  Now many of the fitness gyms or workout emporiums are sought out by women who aren’t looking for performance boost as much as weight control and/or general overall fitness.  That’s a different clientele that you have so you may not want to dive into this area, but any thoughts on what “recreational athletes” or non-athletes should look for in a fitness program?

JJ: One of the most important aspects to look into is to make sure that it isn't a "fad".  There are a lot of "fitness fads" right now and a lot of them promise that they will help lose extreme amounts of weight, produce massive amounts of muscle growth, or get a very defined body.  Most of the time it is an extreme workout regiment that is either very short in time or very long.  The most important thing is to talk to a legitimate trainer and make sure you have a good plan and that you know what you are doing. 

DtB: Are there any differences, things you have to approach differently for female athletes as opposed to males?  Or do all athletes share a common approach to their training? 

There are really only two  differences.  The first is you can't really scream and yell at females (I rarely yell at male athletes) because they don't respond to that type of training.  The 2nd is that I don't design much hypertrophy blocks in a females year round program.  As females do not produce much testosterone they are not able to build as much muscle as a male, so there is not as much of a reason to try to get them to build muscle.  The other thing about the hypertrophy blocks is there aren't as many high contact sports in women's athletics so there is not as much of a reason to try to build the female athletes any bigger.

DtB:  Are there any memories from the past year that will stick out for Amelia and Kao and their development during the past year?  Things they can work on that will help them continue to improve?

Kao Sutton celebrates with Jeff Jarvis

JJ: The most memorable moments was when Kao hex bar deadlifted 385 and split jerked 175, and when Amelia snatched 115 and when she box jumped 42".  Kao will now start into what should be a very successful competitive power lifting career. She needs to improve her back squat as well as her bench press, but right now she would rank fairly high in the US with her power lifting numbers (deadlift, bench, squat).  

The most important aspect for Amelia will be injury prevention and keep developing lower body power.  I expect at least a 45" box jump from her next year, and I would expect to see her hit a 50" box jump her senior year as well as snatching her body weight.   

Carleton's Amelia Campbell Hopes to Repeat Indoor Success Outdoors

She runs relays too. Carlton Photo

Carleton's Amelia Campbell has at least two goals for the 2014 track season, qualify for Nationals both indoor and out.  On the way to meeting the indoor challenge, Campbell exceeded expectations. She not only made it to the NCAA DIII Championships, she won the Pentathlon title.  During the season she also set a new DIII record in the event scoring 3,914 points to win the MIAC Pentathlon championship. She  followed that with the second best ever point total of 3,884 by a DIII athlete to set an NCAA DIII Championship meet record.

And she's a "team player" on and off the track, playing saxophone with three of her best friends in a quartet.  Campbell played basketball and volleyball in addition to track in high school in Sturgeon Bay, WI.  She considered continuing with volleyball in college, but figured, even for her, combined with the academic load at Carleton, it would be too much.

"You really get out what you put in, she says of her various pursuits.  When she was considering colleges, she visited some DI schools, but they didn't click.  When she saw Carleton, however, the small town atmosphere appealed to her. 

It didn't feel "as institutional as DI," she said of the Northfield campus.  "It was more laid back.  Everyone seems to be having a lot more fun.  I'm a lighthearted person...I need to be happy" One problem arose, however, she decided Carleton was where she belonged after the school's deadline for submitting admission applications.  The athletic recruiting organization that was working with her helped her out.  They were able to get her past this hurdle.

Campbell wasn't an instant star.  She had to learn to adjust.  To go from being a "utility player" in high school discover where she could be successful in college, somewhat akin to the classroom where she hasn't declared a major yet, but is leaning toward biology.  Success in the pentathlon it requires being  able to focus on each event, minimize the distractions.  Forget what happened in the last event and concentrate on what needs to be done in the next one.  Sounds simple, but it's not. 

For Campbell there's a seemingly incongruous approach to the competition: "Mentally I try to pull myself into the joy of competition,"  she says, but describes her athletic pursuits as: "It's my job."  Instead of pulling inside herself, staying isolated and concentrating on the task at hand, Campbell enjoys the fact that her competitors in the event share her joyful approach to competition.  They joke with one another, cheer each other on, and help each other reach new heights.  "Usually at a multi event meet we're kind of like a pack," Campbell says.

This is a departure from her freshman year where there was more fear than fun in what she did.  The fear of failure was stronger than the joy of competition.  Campbell replaced the fear with preparation and training designed to get her better prepared for getting the most out of herself.  She worked with the new strength coach, helped teach the football team how to run, and looked long term.

While she hasn't given it much thought yet, Campbell is beginning to consider a possible push for post collegiate competition as a multi eventer.  Her track coach, Donna Ricks, she notes is "a perfect role model. She competed into her 40s," says Campbell.  For now, Campbell is staying in the moment, sticking with what has worked this year.  Breaking down what it takes to be better in each event.  Treating her own personal bests as the competition, and resetting her goals as she sets new standards.

The indoor pentathlon's last event, the 800 meters was a pleasant surprise for Campbell.  While all the other events emphasize power and speed, the 800 is endurance.  "It's willpower," says Campbell.  She credits Ricks expertise in training middle distance runners with helping her run a big PR of 2:17.7 at the NCAA championships.  "I was really proud of that," she said.  "It's the event where I most surprised myself."  She doesn't do long runs, but rather speed endurance training with 200 meter repeats one day and 500-600 meter runs on others.

If one event doesn't go so well, Campbell says, she uses the frustration to motivate her in the next. Outdoors will present a new set of challenges.  She hopes to be able to get outside to practice the javelin, and continue her improvements to set new PRs outdoors.  Just as important, Campbell notes, is avoiding injuries.  She stayed pretty much injury free indoors and hopes for the same going forward. Staying healthy and happy being be the mantra for trying to repeat her indoor success outdoors.