Jim Radcliffe

Saturday I had dinner and visited with Jim Radcliffe in
Seattle. Jim is a very good friend and a consummate professional. As many of
you know he is the head strength and conditioning coach at the University of Oregon.
He is in charge of football and also works with baseball, women’s basketball
and is extensively involved helping with track and field with both the
collegians and post collegians. He does not have a large staff; in fact his
whole staff for all sports is smaller than most DI programs have for football
alone. This does not compromise the quality of the work. Football has been
consistently in the top 25 the last 15 years. He emphasizes training athleticism.
All components are trained appropriate for the demand of the sport. It is not a
one size fits all program. Whenever we get together we always seem to talk
about how we have seen things change over the years, how fads and quick fixes
have trumped good teaching and progressions. We are both strongly influenced by
Bill Bowerman. He was a generalist and we both agree that his influence is a
big factor in our approach of looking at the big picture. Bowerman taught us that
progress in athletic development takes time, there are no quick fixes, good
sound training with proper progression yields consistent results.

We are presenting together at the NSCA Convention in Las Vegas
on Coaching Excellence. It will be a different talk than we usually give in
that it will focus on philosophy and area that we both agree the younger
generation needs to hear. Jim will also be teaching at the GAIN Apprentorship
in June on strength and power development. We are all looking forward to that. It
is great to have a friend and professional colleague like Jim. He has taught me
a lot over the years and had been a consistent sounding board.