Oklahoma State University Athletics
Orange Power: Athlete Performance at Oklahoma State - Speed, Strength and Conditioning
August 05, 2015 | Cowboy Football
A look at how Rob Glass and the OSU athlete performance team help the Cowboys achieve their maximum potential through work in the weight room.
STILLWATER – "Body By Glass" – it's a term used by members of the Oklahoma State football team when referring to the improvements they see in their physical stature during their time in Stillwater.
Why "Body By Glass"?
It's a nod to Rob Glass, OSU's Assistant A.D. for Athlete Performance, who has spent the last 30 years helping student-athletes be the best they can.
Glass and his team are constantly monitoring research and industry trends and using their own considerable expertise to build programs that help the Cowboys with everything from proper nutrition to improving peripheral vision to muscle regeneration and a number of other areas all geared toward helping each individual OSU student-athlete maximize his own unique potential.
During his time in the profession, Glass has seen a multitude of changes, but his willingness to adapt, evolve and incorporate new philosophies and technology is part of what makes him a national leader in his field.
There are elements that have not changed, though – namely, the importance of speed, strength and conditioning and the role that they play in on-field success.
"One thing we never want to get away from is what we started with years ago in developing as much explosive power and speed as we can in every athlete," Glass said. "We spend a lot of time on the platforms doing Olympic movements. We know that speed and explosiveness are key components in an athlete being successful, so those are areas we never want to neglect and we want to make sure we're addressing them."
To that end, Glass was a central figure in conceptualizing and designing the state-of-the-art weight room that the Cowboy football team uses in Boone Pickens Stadium.
Glass said the 20,000-square-foot weight room allows him and the athlete performance team to work with the Cowboys on strength and power development with platforms and Olympic bars and also work on acceleration and change of direction using a Mondo track, among countless other amenities and features.
Technology is one of them.
"We have a projection screen and computers that we use to capture images of athletes in a set and put it back on the screen where they can actually see the set they just executed before they go to the next set if we're needing to correct some technique or work on some coaching points," Glass said.
The thing about speed, strength and conditioning as it pertains specifically to football is that not all position groups are created equal. A kicker uses his body differently than a quarterback. An offensive lineman and a cornerback have two vastly different jobs.
That's where Glass and the OSU athlete performance team come into play. They are able to create custom programs for different position groups and even different individuals within position groups.
"If we trained everybody the same way, we'd be doing a disservice," Glass said. "We try to create a program that is very specific for each athlete for the position they play, then we also individualize it to the needs of that athlete. We are able to, through our assessment program, try to identify strengths and weaknesses in each athlete and different imbalances they may have."
That kind of individualized attention is another reason why Rob Glass has enjoyed success in helping student-athletes reach their maximum level of performance.
It also provides those student-athletes with an added perk of all the hard work he demands from them.
Namely, achieving a "Body By Glass."
Why "Body By Glass"?
It's a nod to Rob Glass, OSU's Assistant A.D. for Athlete Performance, who has spent the last 30 years helping student-athletes be the best they can.
Glass and his team are constantly monitoring research and industry trends and using their own considerable expertise to build programs that help the Cowboys with everything from proper nutrition to improving peripheral vision to muscle regeneration and a number of other areas all geared toward helping each individual OSU student-athlete maximize his own unique potential.
During his time in the profession, Glass has seen a multitude of changes, but his willingness to adapt, evolve and incorporate new philosophies and technology is part of what makes him a national leader in his field.
There are elements that have not changed, though – namely, the importance of speed, strength and conditioning and the role that they play in on-field success.
"One thing we never want to get away from is what we started with years ago in developing as much explosive power and speed as we can in every athlete," Glass said. "We spend a lot of time on the platforms doing Olympic movements. We know that speed and explosiveness are key components in an athlete being successful, so those are areas we never want to neglect and we want to make sure we're addressing them."
To that end, Glass was a central figure in conceptualizing and designing the state-of-the-art weight room that the Cowboy football team uses in Boone Pickens Stadium.
Glass said the 20,000-square-foot weight room allows him and the athlete performance team to work with the Cowboys on strength and power development with platforms and Olympic bars and also work on acceleration and change of direction using a Mondo track, among countless other amenities and features.
Technology is one of them.
"We have a projection screen and computers that we use to capture images of athletes in a set and put it back on the screen where they can actually see the set they just executed before they go to the next set if we're needing to correct some technique or work on some coaching points," Glass said.
The thing about speed, strength and conditioning as it pertains specifically to football is that not all position groups are created equal. A kicker uses his body differently than a quarterback. An offensive lineman and a cornerback have two vastly different jobs.
That's where Glass and the OSU athlete performance team come into play. They are able to create custom programs for different position groups and even different individuals within position groups.
"If we trained everybody the same way, we'd be doing a disservice," Glass said. "We try to create a program that is very specific for each athlete for the position they play, then we also individualize it to the needs of that athlete. We are able to, through our assessment program, try to identify strengths and weaknesses in each athlete and different imbalances they may have."
That kind of individualized attention is another reason why Rob Glass has enjoyed success in helping student-athletes reach their maximum level of performance.
It also provides those student-athletes with an added perk of all the hard work he demands from them.
Namely, achieving a "Body By Glass."
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