Interview with Ethan Reeve:

Director of Strength & Conditioning at Wake Forest

I recently had the privilege of spending about an hour on the phone with Ethan Reeve, the Director of Strength & Conditioning at Wake Forest.  Coach Reeve is an exceptional teacher and motivator, and he cares deeply about the profession and the athletes he works with.  As an entertaining and educational addition, the entire conversation will soon be available on SpeedAndStrengthCoach.com, and this is something you won’t want to miss.

When we discussed the possibility of taping the conversation, Ethan wanted to make sure that it could be edited in case something gets messed up.  For someone with as much experience and credibility as he has, I thought this showed his true humility.  Throughout the conversation, that humility came through over and over again.  Coach Reeve has forgotten more about strength & conditioning than most people have ever learned, yet he is incredibly humble, open-minded, eager to learn and more than willing to share.  He is constantly reading, attending clinics and talking to people about training because he just loves to learn.

While he loves to read and learn, Ethan is also very practical in his approach.  He likes to use what has worked in the past because it has already proven its worth.  Sometimes experience defies logic.  Sometimes it runs contrary to science.  But, after training thousands of athletes through the years, it’s hard to argue with results.

For example, many S & C coaches believe that training the neck is one of the most important ways to prevent serious injuries in football players.  It seems logical that, if a neck injury has the potential to be catastrophic, then training that area may help reduce the risk because the musculature will be better prepared to support the area.  Ethan used to subscribe to the same philosophy, until he began to experiment and take a closer look at the situation. 

He began to experiment with training the neck directly vs. allowing it to be integrated into total-body lifts where the musculature is being utilized as a part of a greater system.  The neck was getting work while doing movements like the clean, push press and rows, but he liked that it was being used as an integrated part of an athletic movement.  It is a link in the chain, and he believes the body should be trained together in that manner.  Low and behold, the rate of stingers and neck injuries dropped dramatically for his players.  That’s just an example of how experience has taught him something different that you’d get from a book.  He’ll be the first to admit that there is nothing scientific about it, but it works for him and his athletes.  You can make a scientific argument against this, but you just can’t argue experience.

Coach Reeve developed an interest in strength training when he was very young, and it has been a part of his life ever since.  He was a standout high school wrestler which earned him the opportunity to compete at the University of Tennessee.  At Tennessee, he was introduced to new training methods that interested and excited him.  He was learning more everyday and soaking it up like a sponge.  He still didn’t know he was going to be a strength coach, but strength training was becoming a large part of his life.

When he was done with his collegiate wrestling career, he began coaching.  He spent several years coaching collegiate wrestling at places like Oklahoma State and Tennessee, all the time incorporating strength training into his programs.  He coached wrestling for several years before having the opportunity to become a full-time strength & conditioning coach and beginning a new phase of his career.  Because this wrestling background was so influential, he now incorporates tumbling-type movements into his program as a way to teach athletes how to move.  The movement work has become a staple in his program along with several different strength exercises.

Through the years, Coach Reeve has experimented with many exercises, but six of them have withstood the test of time.  His six “bread & butter” exercises that he includes throughout the year (although not all at once or all on the same day) include:

Power Clean

Front Squat

Deadlift

Standing Press

Chin-Ups

One-Arm Dumbbell Bench Press

These are staples in his program, and he explains why he likes those exercises so much in the full interview.  You’ll hear him talk about each lift, what he likes about it, how he incorporates them into his program, and how they have paid off for him throughout his career.

Also in the interview you will hear Coach Reeve discuss:

·         Density Training – this is a strength training system he developed that focuses on the quality of each rep and allows athletes to handle heavy weights with greater volume.

·         How he balances his coaching career and family life.

·         His training philosophy and how he implements his program.

·         Coaching athletes both physically and mentally and his approach to this.

·         How he uses squats and his philosophy on proper form and depth.

·         Suggestions for high school coaches to bolster enthusiasm and confidence with lifting.

·         Plenty of words of wisdom for young coaches.

·         His thoughts on the S & C profession and the field in general.

I truly enjoyed my conversation with Coach Reeve, and anyone with an interest in strength & conditioning is going to love listening to the complete interview.  Ethan is a true professional and his experiences have allowed him to develop a philosophy that incorporates many different training methods.  His advice and wisdom can benefit any coach and any level, and we appreciate him taking the time to share his thoughts with us.

Jim Kielbaso

SpeedAndStrengthCoach.com