"'What are you actually preparing your athletes for?''

Coaches discuss how training objectives shift when preparing athletes for the specific demands of a professional season.

"'What are you actually preparing your athletes for?'' That was the question at the heart of Live Call 6 of the Team Speed Coach Certification on Friday. Over 90 minutes, Stu McMillan, Les Spellman, Danny Foley, and host - Meg Young distilled what changes when the objective moves beyond improving isolated qualities, and towards preparing athletes for the demands of a professional season. Some of the themes that emerged from the discussion: • Preparing for the NFL Combine and preparing for an NFL season are two fundamentally different coaching problems. • Programming starts with understanding the environment athletes are about to enter—not selecting drills or writing sets and reps. • GPS can provide valuable information, but only when it's interpreted alongside the context of the session and the demands of the sport. • Testing doesn't have to sit outside the training process. It can become part of it. • Strength training should support the work on the field. The week should be organised around the total stress experienced by the athlete, rather than treating the weight room and field as separate worlds. • Athlete education matters. The athletes who continue to improve are often the ones who actively seek feedback, ask better questions, and understand why they're training the way they are. We reinforced that every coaching decision exists within a specific context: As the demands of the sport change, so too should the questions we ask and the solutions we build. ------ If you're interested in moving beyond drills and exercises to better understand the principles, decision-making, and systems behind effective speed development, Team Speed Coach Certification is for you. Cohort 2 opens for registration soon, with the programme beginning in October 2026. ➡️ Register your interest: loom.ly/cZIwGjA