Essence of Time with Brian Johnson

Coach Brian Johnson is the Head Strength and Conditioning Coach with the University of Arizona. Brian Johnson is a former NCAA Football player and National Champion from Louisiana State University, where he played under Nick Saban. He had also spent time playing and coaching in the NFL prior to his arrival at Arizona. He comes from a very strong pedigree of coaching and comes on today to share his experiences and his utilization of athlete monitoring with and without technology and return to practice/play with his athletes.

First thing Brian talks about is how when he was at Florida State University, they were one of the first strength staff’s in the country to utilize Catapult GPS technology. At the time the technology was so new and nobody in America was using it, they were just figuring out stuff on the fly. As he moved along in his career, he learned more and more from stops at LSU and San Francisco 49ers.

Brian goes in depth with the biggest metric of them all: TIME. How to ready an athlete as per energy system; what happens when an NFL roster goes from 90 to 53; what happens when a player has not received ample amounts of practice reps and has to play a game and vice versa…Coach Johnson attacks the angle most people do not take into account, and that is TIME.

Understanding that not a lot of coaches have access to big time technology at their disposal, Brian sheds light on what other metrics can be quantified for athletic performance. Everything from RPEs, Wellness Questionnaires, body weights & body fat percentages, quantifying meal plans, Coach Johnson has damn near figured it out with or without the sexy equipment.

The biggest things that technology and data collection are good for: it

is that it is a conversation starter,

it is a great educational tool for the athlete,

it is a daily measurement,

and it can lead to an intervention if needed.

These are the main reasons Brian and I use technology, because he and I are giving out athletes the opportunity to learn more about themselves in their recovery. If athletes do not know much about their own recovery, then they will not understand what it takes to take their game to an elite level.

 

Brian Johnson's Instagram tag is:

@_Coachbee1