School Spotlight: Archbishop McNicholas (OH)

Location: Cincinnati, OH

Enrollment: 665 Students, Co-Ed

School-Type: Private

Sports using PLT4M: Girls and Boys Basketball, Boys Soccer, Football

Interviewee: Shawn Gillette, Strength and Conditioning Coordinator

Interview

Q: Tell me about your role at Archbishop McNicholas and who you work with?

A: I have been the Strength and Conditioning Coordinator at Archbishop McNicholas for the last five years. I work primarily with Football, Girls and Boys Basketball, and the Soccer teams.

Q: What about PLT4M would you say provides the most value?

A: The aspect of PLT4M I love the most is the in depth video breakdowns for every movement. Every athlete learns at a different pace, and as a coach juggling a lot of kids, you can’t always give each one the attention they need. PLT4M provides the instruction they need to master the movements on their own. After our first year, we saw a dramatic improvement in form and technique amongst our freshman. It was the best form I have seen from kids that age in all my years coaching and working with athletes. The other benefit of the videos and programs provided is that it establishes consistency amongst the coaches. Everyone speaks the same language and can reference the same coaching cues when working with the athletes.

Q: Do you use the PLT4M workouts or build your own?

A: Well that is another huge perk. The PLT4M programs are great and using them as my baseline saves me a ton of time, but I have the ability to make any modifications I want and add and subtract exercises as needed to better fit my goals and space.

Q: How do you deliver workouts to athletes?

A: We use the App. The kids love the digital access and being able to pull the workout up on their phone. It has allowed them to keep track of their data better and more easily see their progress. It has also saved me a ton of time by eliminating the need for print outs and binders. Can’t tell you how happy I was to stop having to do that!

Q: What has been the impact on results and culture?

A: It has been incredible! All the percentages are built into the programs so kids have personalized workloads for every set of every lift. This has eliminated the guesswork and led to players always doing the proper weights. With that, we have seen tremendous results and improvement. The other element that has helped both results and culture are the “Worksets”. Kids can input their results and based on their performance the system automatically adjust their maxes and weights each week. This ensures they are always being properly challenged and the kids love earning a trophy each time they are successful!