Ian Jeffreys | Next Generational Leadership

How does a small-town boy from Mid Wales become the next NSCA President? Follow Ian Jeffreys’ inspiring journey, beginning with his introduction to the NSCA in 1989 as a professional rugby player hungry for knowledge to perform better. Listen as he recounts the thrill of his first conference and why NSCA events are so much more valuable than just what is presented on the main stage. Then, dive into Ian’s career-defining contributions to speed and agility, sparked by his reverse-engineering approach that leverages movement patterns and strong positioning to elevate game speed. Reflect on decades of evolution in our profession, including increased career paths plus the rise of technology and AI — and why they can never replace the true human heart of coaching. Lastly, learn Ian’s vision for the NSCA’s future, which involves both listening and leading to maintain the NSCA’s position as the worldwide authority in strength and conditioning.

Connect with Ian by email at ian.jeffreys@nsca.com | Find Eric on Instagram: @ericmcmahoncscs or LinkedIn: @ericmcmahoncscs 

Join Ian’s inauguration at NSCACon 2024 in Baltimore, MD, July 10-13! Register at NSCA.com/NSCACon

"You know, the NSCA has always been a massive source of knowledge and information for me. But it was that first conference where I realized this is what I-- I have to keep coming to these because these are just so much more than purely information [...] you're able to share the kind of little questions that wouldn't be in on-stage presentation." 5:55

"My rationale behind it is, how can we develop our speed and agility in a manner that maximizes on-the-field performance? We have to start with analyzing the game itself and that's where the concept of game speed came from [...] it's a subtly different way of looking at speed and agility than the classic, where we look at our definitions, and we look at our measures, and we develop those capacities." 11:10

"We have to thank the pioneers, the people who set us on the road because they were the ones who were going against the grain of how strength training and conditioning actually helps sports performance rather than being a hindrance." 20:30

"If we go back to the early pioneers, there were guys in the weights room delivering the strength training, delivering the warm-ups, delivering running sessions, and so on. But now that's not the only option. You can have a career in academia in strength and conditioning. You can have a career in data within the areas of strength and conditioning." 24:15

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[00:00:02.44] Welcome to the NSCA Coaching Podcast, season 8, episode 3.
[00:00:07.54] You know, the NSCA has always been a massive source of knowledge and information for me. But it was that first conference where I realized this is what I-- I have to keep coming to these because these are just so much more than purely information because you're able to share the kind of little questions that wouldn't be in on-stage presentation.
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[00:00:35.84] This is the NSCA's Coaching Podcast, where we talk to strength and conditioning coaches about what you really need to know, but probably didn't learn in school. There's strength and conditioning, and then there's everything else.
[00:00:46.67] This is the NSCA Coaching Podcast. I'm Eric McMahon, NSCA's Coaching and Sports Science Program Manager. Today, we have a special guest joining us, Dr. Ian Jeffreys, NSCA's President-Elect. He's currently working with the NSCA Board of Directors in approach of his three-year term as the NSCA President. That term will begin at the July 2024 national conference in Baltimore. Ian, how are you?
[00:01:14.30] I'm very well, Eric. How are you?
[00:01:16.64] Doing great. I've seen you at a lot of events over the last year.
[00:01:21.18] Yes. You must be fed up with me by now.
[00:01:24.05] Not quite yet. Not quite yet.
[00:01:25.76] Like that bad penny that keeps turning up.
[00:01:28.61] Hey. So I'm hearing the accent. For those that don't know you yet, where's home for you? Where are you coming from on this episode?
[00:01:35.94] I'm in my garden in Brecon in Mid Wales in the UK.
[00:01:41.59] Awesome. So when you come to an NSCA event, you're hopping on a pretty good flight.
[00:01:46.70] I am, yes, and often two or three flights to get to some of the locations. So when people see me at conferences in the evening and I'm kind of looking as if I'm not really interested, it's just jet lag, or old age, or a combination of both.
[00:02:04.28] [LAUGHS] That's awesome.
[00:02:05.73] So President-Elect-- that means you've been a part of the NSCA for a long time-- committees, Board of Directors. Tell us about your journey with the NSCA.
[00:02:16.82] It's a long one, and it's one that really accelerated around 2000. So I became a member of the NSCA back in 1989. And it was as a result of the desert of information that was available.
[00:02:36.87] I was a professional rugby player at that point, desperate to get better, desperate to learn how to train. And all that was really available in the UK was the commercial type information. i wanted quality information.
[00:02:53.82] And I got to hear about the NSCA and the journals that it had, and I wanted to be part of that. And so I reached out, got the membership. Everything was the old air mail at that point. I can remember the journals coming through, the excitement as I ripped open the packaging and devoured each and every journal and unsurprisingly got better. And so I became a massive fan of the NSCA.
[00:03:29.99] But probably the big change for me was attending my first conference in 2000. And I realized at that point that, yes, the information was one part, but the NSCA was so much more than simply presentations and articles. It was people. It was people at so many levels who could make you better.
[00:03:52.49] So I was transitioning out of playing at that point into coaching. And I was working at a college, setting up a sports academy. And I was so lucky to meet a group of high school coaches who took me under their wing, shared all their gems of knowledge and information with me, and that saved me so much trial and error. I suddenly had a group of people I could go to bounce ideas off.
[00:04:23.64] And that's something that stuck with me, is, one, that conferences and events are so much more than just what's on the main stage. It's who you get to meet, the friendships that you develop, and also how that tacit information that's there just makes you a better coach.
[00:04:47.01] And from there, those guys encouraged me to be a part of the NSCA's high school coaches book. So I remember authoring a chapter for that, and authoring a co-chapter with Patrick McHenry, and getting a strange email from Keith Cinea to Patrick-- Patrick, what is this strange spelling that you've got? Have you turned English? They didn't know I was authoring that with my UK spelling variations and so on.
[00:05:19.09] And then encouraged to speak at the conferences, and then I became part of the high school SIG committee, and then later on the certification committee. And that led to an application to the board in 2016 that I was lucky to be successful, and then the massive highlight of becoming President-Elect.
[00:05:46.28] And it all started with getting those journals in the mail and getting access to the information.
[00:05:53.96] Absolutely. You know, the NSCA has always been a massive source of knowledge and information for me. But it was that first conference where I realized this is what I-- I have to keep coming to these because these are just so much more than purely information. And that's something that, if you look, is potentially a great danger of the online version of events is, yes, you can get the information, and it's fantastic that people can now access that remotely. But we risk not getting those other benefits of professional organization that can really ultimately be the difference between being good and being great.
[00:06:45.31] I know that's an immense challenge for the world right now after COVID of where virtual education stands in comparison to maybe where we were before, where there was a little bit of virtual education opportunity. But really, everything was in-person. And now I know we're navigating that at the NSCA, and everyone else is, even in the workforce.
[00:07:10.97] But I think it is the message I'm hearing-- it really is important to get to NSCA events, know who your community is. And there's strength in that. There's strength in that knowing that there are other coaches.
[00:07:24.48] Oh, absolutely.
[00:07:24.86] Yeah, other coaches just like you.
[00:07:27.07] Because you're able to share the kind of little questions that wouldn't be in on-stage presentation. But I remember speaking to the high school coaches. And what fascinated me was how they structured their work to get so many athletes in and out of their weight room and their fields every day.
[00:07:52.98] And that was just gold dust to myself, you know. And it just helped me. It was like a rocket under my own development because I could, all right, I've got some ideas that I can try.
[00:08:10.80] And I think a message that comes through that resonates with me is that we love to think of things in a binary manner-- good, bad, you know, online, offline. There are strengths and weaknesses of both. And I think what we just need to do is balance. Maybe we can't make every event every year.
[00:08:34.89] But if we can, at some point, I think we get different benefits than we get from the online. The online obviously opens up massive opportunities, and it's a boon to what we do because suddenly the access is much greater. But I don't think it totally replaces the in-person events.
[00:08:57.83] So one of the topics I hear you present on often is game speed. You have some books, you have some articles.
[00:09:05.52] It's a big one for you. I'm going to open a can of worms. This is warm-up. This is speed, agility, training, but really relating it to what's happening during competition. What's your message to coaches related to game speed?
[00:09:19.32] Game speed is my passion. And it comes from my sports background. Rugby was the sport I played for 15 years. And what helped me stay at the top for that time was what people would call speed and agility.
[00:09:41.10] But what I realized at that point was it was that little bit more than what I was reading about in the speed and agility texts. And it's that difference between what I was experiencing as a player and a coach and what was being written in the classic texts of those times that fascinated me, that triggered this interest in, how is what's happening on the field different than what we're seeing with our research articles?
[00:10:17.82] And I think science has helped us massively. It's one of the greatest tools that we have, but it works really well with things that can be measured. I think the challenge with speed and agility as they affect the game is that some of those things are very difficult to measure.
[00:10:39.09] So playing against some players who had lightning speed, but nothing else-- sometimes they were actually quite easy to play against. Whereas other players who didn't have that lightning speed, but had other capabilities, presented more of a challenge. And it was those anomalies that have fascinated me ever since I was playing.
[00:11:07.33] So my rationale behind it is that, how can we develop our speed and agility in a manner that maximizes on-the-field performance? And to that, we have to start with analyzing the game itself. And that's where the concept of game speed came from-- not because we're not short of terms and everything. But to me, it's a subtly different way of looking at speed and agility than the classic, you know, where we look at our definitions, and we look at our measures, and we develop those capacities.
[00:11:47.89] So as strength and conditioning coaches, a lot of times, we think in terms of ground-up progressions. Is what you're talking about, more of a reverse-engineering approach?
[00:12:00.05] It's definitely a reverse-engineering approach. So the way I work at it is I look at the game, I break the game down into phases, and principles, and key tasks that the athlete has to be able to achieve. And that's where it all comes to life for me. From there, I can typically identify specific capacities and underpinning capacities. And once I've got those, it's easy then to reconstruct that development program so that the task relevance is always at the forefront of what we do.
[00:12:42.38] And what I found with it is that there are movement patterns that nobody else was talking about, yet I was finding were absolutely crucial to effective performance. So we would take our speed, we would do our linear sprints, we would measure our 40-yard dash and so on. But we're not always in a good position to sprint. So how can I ensure that athletes are aware of what a good position is, maintain a good position, are able to start in multiple directions from various movement patterns, and so on? So what I think develops there is a bandwidth. Aspects such as acceleration are still a core part, but I need that variety in how I apply it so that it's as effective in those game scenarios as it can possibly be.
[00:13:44.17] And within that, you mentioned the relationships of the variables-- the speed, the acceleration, the agility. And from athlete to athlete, what makes someone great may be totally different than the next player down the line.
[00:13:59.70] Absolutely. Exactly. So where I'm getting into it at the moment is the concept of what I call game speed fitness, which is you and me, for example, would have different capacities. So say I've got greater linear speed than you, but you've got a wonderful ability to perceive what's happening, to put your body in the right position.
[00:14:28.79] When we're faced with a challenge, we're going to take different approaches to solving it. And that's something that we don't necessarily-- in the way we've traditionally looked at speed and agility, we've not necessarily considered. If we go against each other, then, it's not just the capacity that I have. It's the comparative capacities in relation to yourself.
[00:14:58.56] So we'll have played each other, say, two or three times before. I start to know your strengths. You start to know my weaknesses.
[00:15:07.77] And it's a battle. It's a one-on-one battle within this broader concept of the game. And my job as a strength and conditioning coach is to give my athletes as many movement tools as I can to give them options as they face the different scenarios in the game.
[00:15:33.64] This really gets me thinking about when I look at an athlete, any sport on the field, moving around, what is their strategy? Asking that question-- what's their movement strategy? How are they accelerating/decelerating within the demands of their sport and the confines with their position, whatever it may be? That's really interesting, and it goes to that reverse-engineering approach.
[00:15:58.67] It does. And I think it's a space that we don't necessarily occupy particularly well. And it's always a challenge because what you have, I think, are two separate entities. You have the sport-specific coach, and you have the strength and conditioning coach.
[00:16:18.45] And I think game speed lies in this intersection of both. So I listen to TV commentators on rugby, on soccer over here. And when they analyze the game, they're looking at it from a very tactical perspective. What marking system are they using?
[00:16:41.35] Yet so often, what I see is a breakdown in the quality of the movement, whether it be starting position, first movement, subsequent movement, and so on. And I'm not sure that we're necessarily addressing that particularly well because sometimes the strength and conditioning coaches, we edge towards what we can measure-- a 40-yard dash of pro agility and so on. And how many people are in this space where we're assessing movement in relation to what the athlete needs to achieve? And it's not an easy thing, but I think it offers opportunities for us.
[00:17:27.28] This makes me think of a conversation we had with our rugby special interest group. Here in the US, as you know, rugby isn't quite what it is internationally. And one of the realizations from the group is that as a strength and conditioning coach for rugby, here in the US, it's very much a game development initiative.
[00:17:46.88] So you can't just be a strength and conditioning coach. You need to really understand the skill aspects of the game and how to play the game because a lot of us here don't know that. And so to that point, along that-- maybe it's a continuum or Venn diagram of strength and conditioning into sports-specific knowledge or the sport coach-- do you feel like strength and conditioning coaches need to understand their sport on the same level as sport coaches?
[00:18:20.87] I think it would be unrealistic to say on the same level because we would not expect a sports coach to understand the same level what we do. But I think an element of understanding and consideration of, OK, what is it? Why are we doing these movements? What's the game-related goal that we're trying to achieve? And I think once we start to understand that, it's easier to construct and analyze an athlete's movements in relation to those goals, not necessarily in relation to those big global numbers that we traditionally do. It's just another aspect of what we do.
[00:19:11.82] Yeah. Well, the thing I like about the game speed topic is it really does-- regardless of where you are and the strength and conditioning profession, there is some aspect of game speed in your sport. And it speaks to the difference of what we're doing in practice as strength and conditioning coaches a lot of times-- or in training sessions-- versus what we actually see on the sport field. And with that said, we've had a lot of growth within specific-- maybe the jump from exercise science knowledge into sports science knowledge and the upskilling of just how technical things are getting. You mentioned before 1989, 2024-- we got 35 years of time in the NSCA community. I didn't want to--
[00:20:02.20] Oh, you're not supposed to say things like that. You make me feel old.
[00:20:04.78] Well, you know, this is big, Ian. You're our next president. We want people to get to know you. What's one of the things that has changed in the strength and conditioning profession from the early days or just something that-- you know, a real positive step, something we're doing better today than maybe back then?
[00:20:28.79] Oh, it's a step change. But first thing, I think we have to thank the pioneers, the people who set us on the road because they were the ones who were going against the grain of how strength training and conditioning actually helps sports performance rather than being a hindrance, which was the original insight. And I think if we go back, we were working on a bit of guesswork.
[00:21:02.47] We're pretty sure this works. We don't have necessarily the body of evidence to prove that we do. Now, if you look at the amount of evidence that we have, the research, the science, and so on, we're in a different world. I think it's resulted in us having greater influence on a larger number of areas of sports performance.
[00:21:30.51] So I also think that, as I said earlier, that comes with necessarily a little bit of a risk as well, is that I worry sometimes that we lose sight of what really makes us as strength and conditioning coaches special. As we edge towards the physical therapy areas, as we edge towards the sports science areas, do we become indistinguishable from those other professions and lose the sight that we basically build athletes? We work on those physical capacities that then transfer onto on-field performance. So are we in a better position? Of course, we are.
[00:22:17.85] But we always have to look at the wider consequences of the directions of travel. And one of the things that is an absolute passion of mine is the human side of what we do and that, deep at heart, we're coaches. And if we look at what's coming on the AI and all the technological changes, we're going to be able to measure more. Things like programming are going to be more computer-generated. But that human interaction can never be replaced.
[00:23:00.85] I love that. Yeah. One thing we know today is that not all strength and conditioning coaches are the same.
[00:23:09.40] Oh, no.
[00:23:12.16] I mean, we have so many areas within the NSCA. From a certification level, but even within the CSCS as a whole, just by having your CSCS doesn't make you just like everyone else. And that's one thing I've really loved about our community is there are so many different types of people when you look at the global NSCA community that you represent. And I love that question of, what makes us indistinguishable as a profession when we start comparing it to these areas that we're often compared to? Or maybe we're along different, similar practitioner paths as athletic trainers, as physical therapists. It's a healthy question for us to ask, and it allows us to maybe pour into our strengths a little bit more of we manage groups really well, we build athletes, we are out in front of groups of people, leading exercise sessions.
[00:24:11.47] Absolutely. And I think if we go back to the early pioneers, there were guys in the weights room delivering the strength training, delivering the warm-ups, delivering running sessions, and so on. But now that's not the only option. You can have a career in academia in strength and conditioning. You can have a career in data within the areas of strength and conditioning.
[00:24:41.35] So we are in a far, far better position in terms of the options available for us. But what I think that implies is that everybody's journey is ultimately going to be individual. I think it puts an onus on us to understand what makes us tick. What are our drivers? How do our personalities fit into different roles? For some people, I don't doubt that standing in front of a team of 70 athletes could be the worst thing they ever want to do.
[00:25:25.26] For others, it's what we want to do every day. And our journeys-- those two individuals, the journey ultimately has to be different. It has to be individual, I think. Yet sometimes, we feel that we're on this track that everybody's going down.
[00:25:47.71] So President-Elect for the NSCA-- were in this time, this one-year period where we're just pulling the rubber band back and we're about to let it go at the National Conference. And then, you're our president. And I know it's a three-year term. But to ask, what would you like to see from the NSCA in the next maybe five to 10 years?
[00:26:11.28] Well, the first thing I have to do in this year is to thank the current president, Brent Alvar, for the support and guidance he's already providing me in terms of how the operation works, what the current projects, and so on. But if I go back to what I stood on in terms of my vision for the presidency, is I'm passionate that strength and conditioning has as potentially wonderful future. We need to value ourselves as professionals in a profession that is worthy of recognition, reward, and so on. So part of that is making sure that we're talking to necessarily external organizations that are the key hirers and proponents of strength and conditioning. I know you do that at multiple events.
[00:27:19.24] We need to ensure that we're espousing why strength and conditioning is important, how they positively impact upon organizations so that the incentive is there for people to hire good, quality professionals. Then, we've got to make sure that our internal mechanisms are as good as they can be. If the professional strength and conditioning is to prosper worldwide, it needs a strong NSCA, without a doubt.
[00:27:56.14] The NSCA is worldwide, the biggest organization. It has to be leading. But we also have to listen. I think we have to be aware of what the trends are in strength and conditioning, what organizations need from us, what our members need from us so that we can make sure that what we're providing is absolutely what the profession and what the members need.
[00:28:25.87] And again, we probably need to be self-critical as well. You've worked in professional sport, and it's a challenging environment. At the end of each season, it's an evaluation of, OK, what are we doing well? What are we not doing so well? And I think that's where we're going.
[00:28:53.72] There are some wonderful initiatives happening, such as the CASCE and the accreditation, which is going to step up the level of training. But we've got to look at, are our certifications as good as they can be? And these are ongoing. Is our conferences as good as they can be? Are our educational? Are productions as good as they can be?
[00:29:24.09] And please, for the people involved, that's not a criticism in any way. I think it's wrong if we're not doing that. And so I'd like to think that, behind the scenes, there'll be evaluations of all of those elements of what we do and maybe not a step change, but hopefully steps just to make sure that we maintain our position as the worldwide leader in strength and conditioning.
[00:29:55.42] I love that. Ian, that's awesome. What I'm hearing is our field, our profession, it's a live document from our certifications, from our conferences, from our education, and it speaks to from 1978 when the NSCA got kicked off with Boyd and a group of coaches getting together in a room to us today with over 60,000--
[00:30:15.64] Absolutely.
[00:30:17.02] Yeah, it's amazing.
[00:30:18.73] And what we've talked about is how we've changed during that time. Any professional body that's going to serve that profession has to change. It has to evolve. And it's a constant evolution. One of the beauties of the way that the Board is set up is that you have your at large, but you've also got each constituency has its own board member. Part of that is, what do the personal trainers need from us? What do the high school coaches, the college coaches, the sports medicine practitioners need from the NSCA? What are we currently providing? What do we need to do to make sure that we continue to provide?
[00:31:12.79] So you're our next president. Someone listening right now may be a future president of the NSCA, a future leader of the NSCA. What advice do you have for today's coaches to be a part of the solution and get involved?
[00:31:29.39] The first thing I would say is, you can do it. If a small-town boy from Mid Wales can become president of the NSCA, then anyone can. But I think the key is you have to get actively involved. The NSCA can be so many things.
[00:31:56.38] For many people-- and as I said, for my first 10 or 11 years, it was something in the background as a provider of information. Things changed when I actively became involved. And many people with a real interest and a real passion working together do make changes. And getting involved with the NSCA, In so many ways, whether it be on a regional level, whether it be on various committees, is the way to do it. It grows yourself.
[00:32:37.52] And in turn, it opens up opportunities for various points of leadership. Did I come into the NSCA thinking I would ever be president? No, absolutely not. But each step of the way, I though, ooh, perhaps. But it was only in the latter years that I thought, right, I'm going to give this a go.
[00:33:03.37] And sometimes, it's scary. When you put your name in for a nomination, it's scary. I'll admit it's scary because you're opening yourself up to judgment from your peers, and that's not easy. But you have to do it. It's the same as when you step onto a field of play with thousands of people watching, and you could be shown up, as I was many a time during my rugby career.
[00:33:38.34] But it also gives you the biggest highs that you could ever have. When I got the call from Scott Caufield that I'd been elected, oh, my god, I nearly broke down because it, oh, my gosh. Oh, wow. And it's a moment I'll never forget.
[00:33:57.10] That's amazing. I really appreciate you sharing that story. And we'll add some links in the show notes about how you, our listeners, can get involved with different areas of the NSCA, regardless of what career stage you're in. And we'll also add your contact information. Ian, what's the best way for people to reach out?
[00:34:17.72] It's through the NSCA-- ian.jeffreys@nsca.com.
[00:34:24.50] Perfect. We'll add that in the show notes. That was NSCA President-Elect, Dr. Ian Jeffreys. Ian, thank you for sharing with us today.
[00:34:34.07] My absolute pleasure. Thank you for listening.
[00:34:37.12] To our listeners, we hope that you will join us this July in Baltimore at the 2024 NSCA National Conference, where, in addition to great education, you can connect with Dr. Jeffreys and other members of NSCA leadership. Thanks for listening. And thank you to Sorinex Exercise Equipment. We appreciate their support.
[00:34:57.14] Thanks for listening to another episode of the NSCA Coaching Podcast. We value you as a listener, just as we value your input as a member of the NSCA community. To take action and get involved, check out volunteer leadership opportunities under Membership at nsca.com.
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[00:35:16.13] This was the NSCA's Coaching Podcast. The National Strength and Conditioning Association was founded in 1978 by strength and conditioning coaches to share information, resources, and help advance the profession. Serving coaches for over 40 years, the NSCA is the trusted source for strength and conditioning professionals. Be sure to join us next time.

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