NHSSCA Coaches Corner: Missy Mitchell McBeth

Coach McBeth is the head strength and conditioning coach at Byron Nelson High School in Trophy Club, Texas. Prior to this, she was the Senior Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth from 2009-2016. There she oversaw the development of the Women’s Volleyball, Basketball, and Golf teams and assisted with the Football team. From 2004-2008, she worked as an assistant volleyball, track, and head girls powerlifting coach at Copperas Cove High School in Copperas Cove, Texas.

What is your training philosophy?

  • Injury Reduction – Our training program is designed first and foremost to create a more resilient athlete. We accomplish this through the use of training age-appropriate progressions, technical proficiency, and consistency.
  • Performance Enhancement – This one is kind of a no-brainer. We want what we are doing in the weight room to transfer to the court or field and not to interfere with it.
  • Life Skills – Yes, I love the weight room. I love coaching big lifts, seeing kids improve, and watching them excel athletically. But at the end of the day, the weight room is simply the tool I use to (hopefully) develop better human beings. Athletes are held accountable to standards: punctuality, attention to detail, coachability, and leaving things better than they found it, just to name a few things. To me, that’s the biggest area of transfer I want to see: Weight room skills becoming life skills.
  • Education – While we don’t have time to dive into the minutia of exercise physiology and the why/how of every facet of our program, in general our athletes should understand the overarching goal of the training program, and the big picture of how this will help them succeed in their sport.

What is the best piece of Strength & Conditioning advice you have ever received?

Read everything you can get your hands on. If you disagree with it? Keep reading anyway. You’ll either learn something new, or affirm what you already “know.”

Where do you go for continuing education?

I’m all over the place with this. At present, I do a lot of scrolling through my twitter feed, looking for concepts that other coaches are discussing, and then I’ll start sniffing out information on whatever piques my interest. More formally, Simplifaster.com is a great resource for coaches. I love how many NHSSCA members I see published on that site.

What do you hope for a student-athlete to learn while in your program?

Aside from the “life skills” discussed above, I want my athletes to be able to walk into a gym as an adult and know what to do, and how to do it well. Most high school athletes won’t end up playing sports after school, but they will need to lead happy, healthy lives. I believe that physical fitness is a major contributor to both health and happiness.

What do you do in your training program that makes it unique?

I don’t know that I’m doing anything unique. I think there are so many amazing coaches out there working hard and making kids better! If I had to pick one overarching quality that my program has, it’s an emphasis on technical proficiency. That’s a terrible and boring answer, so here’s something fun:

With many of my teams, we have at least one “special” event a year. We have an annual costume lift for Halloween, a sled push Easter egg hunt, a muscle beach “party,” Bobcat Olympics. Sometimes we scrap the usual warm-up and play the greatest game of all time: Ship to Shore (IYKYK). Sure, the weight room is a serious place to do work, but it’s okay to make a memory or two that doesn’t have to do with a personal record.

 

Social Media & Contact Information

Twitter: @missEmitche11

Website: safeirontraining.com

 

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