“So, who is Brian Utley and why am I going to trust him to lead me down the path of greater levels of speed, strength, power, mobility, and overall athletic performance without wasting time and effort like so many others do?” Glad you asked….
My story….
Having grown up as an army brat I had the challenge of making new friends wherever the next relocation took us. Fortunately for me, my parents got me involved in sports at a young age, which gave me an avenue to meet kids my own age. Not to mention, I showed the makings of a pretty good little athlete.
I was like every other red-blooded, American boy and played soccer through my elementary years. The sport taught me a lot about coordination and conditioning, and I enjoyed the experience at the time, but soccer does very little for me today as a spectator sport.
Jump ahead to my middle school years. I had ditched soccer on a high note after my club team won a state championship. My sports were basketball and baseball, with a little track and field on the side. I was having success in all 3, but it was obvious to my middle school basketball coach that something had to be added for me to continue to succeed in the near future….enter strength training.
Being a 13 year old boy and just starting to notice the ladies, I was all for it. Did I mention that my despised middle school nickname was “Sticks”? Well, it was, and I was up for anything that would help me get rid of that moniker. And, if it helped me score a couple more buckets or drive the ball another dozen feet, that was a bonus.
I bring up that mentality because that’s the same thought process I often face today when introducing athletes to a progressive form of training that’s designed to help the athlete get on the field, stay on the field, and perform better while they’re out there. How you look in the mirror is only secondary.
So, I started working out AND LOVED IT! My biceps started to pop a little bit and by the time in was in high school my body really started to change for the better. Combine some basic weight training with a touch of puberty and good home cooked meals, and you turn a 6’0″, 142 freshman into a 6’3″, 173 pound sophomore in a year’s time.
I was maniacal about the weight room. It was 3 days a week at about an hour and a half a pop, and I’d lose my mind if I missed a workout. I would come straight home and record every exercise, set, rep, and weight in my spiral notebook….I know, a little OCD even as a teenager.
By my junior year in high school, I was down to just 1 sport, basketball, because I saw it as my best chance for a scholarship. I kept up my regimen in the weight room, still with a lot of hours and very traditional lifts. You know….the bench presses, shoulder presses, lat pull-downs, biceps curls, nose-breakers, leg extensions and curls, calf raises (until I was blue in the legs but to no avail), leg presses….with no progressions or consciousness of how I was really preparing my body to perform. But, hey, I was spending more time in there than anyone else and was working really hard. That’s good enough, right?
Oh, if I only knew then what I know now. Sure, I went on to have a successful high school career….all-city, all-state, McDonald’s all-American nominee, signed a division I scholarship….but, to think back about how I worked hard, but I sure didn’t work very smart.
Consider that even though I was a good athlete, I ranked LAST on my high school team on a flexibility test, and even though I set the unofficial bench press record for the basketball program at the time, I admittedly wouldn’t say that I played nearly as strong. Some call it ”cock strong” or having “old man strength”. My basketball skills were good and I tested well on vertical jump tests, but I was always off balance in traffic and around the goal, which meant that I didn’t finish as well as my weight room stats would suggest that I should.
But, like I said earlier, I had enough positives to my game that I went on to sign a division I scholarship with Stetson University in Florida. Long story short, I was miserable for the entire 10 months that I spent there for reasons that extend far beyond the scope of this ”About” page.
So, I transferred to play at the division II school in my hometown, the University of Alabama in Huntsville. It was supposed to be a beautiful homecoming, and a lot was expected of me. My new teammates even jokingly (maybe begrudgingly would be a better word since I got a lot of attention) called me “the Savior” because I had arrived to rescue the program from years of losing records and disappointment. Well, I think it would be an understatement to say that I didn’t deliver.
I cringe when I think back to that transfer summer between my freshman and sophomore years of college. My hair-brained training plan for the summer….get BIG and strong for the first half of the summer WITHOUT touching a ball and then add the basketball stuff during the second half of the summer once my body was right. Was I serious?!
I’ve learned over the years that to make your training regimen work for you on the field of play, you MUST coordinate your skill work with your training. YOU CANNOT SEPARATE THE TWO. I wish I was conscious of that concept at the time, because my sophomore season left a lot to be desired.
The spring and summer after my junior year in college was a pivotal period of time for me, and it had nothing to do with me shooting hoops in the gym. I was hired to work as a therapeutic exercise technician at PRSM (Preventative and Rehabilitative Sports Medicine) under the guidance of Mark Noble. To give a thorough account of Mark’s accomplishments in the fields of human physiology and exercise science would exhaust the rest of this “About” page, so let me provide the Cliff’s Notes version and simply say the man knows his stuff.
The experience at PRSM was my first in-depth exposure to the science of the body and training. I soaked up as much knowledge and information as I could from Mark and the people I worked with. On top of that, Mark funneled my first personal training client to me a couple years later in 2000. I got a taste of training, and I wasn’t about to look back.
The following summer I studied for and passed my first training certification test, ACE. I really didn’t feel like this certification did anything to improve my ability to train clients, but, hey, I had some letters behind my name.
While continuing my growth as a trainer, I was also holding down a full-time job as a history teacher and varsity basketball coach at the high school I graduated from. Although frustrating at times, because I was more interested in training, both of these positions served me well in my quest to become a better trainer. My classroom experience gave me a window into the psyche of more than a hundred teen-age minds on a daily basis and also helped me to improve my ability to communicate with so many different types of personalities.
The basketball gig didn’t produce many wins, but it did give me the opportunity to use my team as case studies for the new training methods I was implementing. And, it paid off. During my last year as coach, not 1 of the 42 players in my program missed a game or practice due to injury. Now, if we could’ve only made more shots….
In the winter of 2004, I worked the NFL Combine in Indianapolis, which was a great experience. For those trying to sort through past combines and drafts, this was the one marked with QB drama, as Eli Manning forced a trade and wound up in New York, while Phillip Rivers landed in San Diego. Roethlisberger was also at this combine, and based on recent events, I guess I should have sterilized myself after taking a picture with him. Geez dude, practice a little self control.
My training started to gain momentum in the summer of 2004 when I passed the CSCS (certified strength and conditioning specialist) exam on my first attempt. Endorsed by the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA), the CSCS is considered to be the gold standard in the field of strength and conditioning.
A year later, I became certified by the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM) as a Performance Enhancement Specialist. This certification isn’t as glamorous as the CSCS one, but truth be told, I utilize it far more. I fell in love with its application toward athletic performance and decreasing injuries right off the bat and haven’t looked back since.
In the spring of 2007 I hung up the basketball coaching whistle for good, which took a huge weight off my shoulders and allowed me to focus on my training business year round without taking off 4 months during the basketball season. So, no more devising ways to attack a match-up zone or worrying about how to defend a pick-and-roll. Now, it was all about preparing the athletes physically and mentally to give the team coaches a better product to implement into their schemes.
Oh, and another benefit of my new year round training schedule….I was now available to work with off-season athletes in my true love, baseball. Sure, basketball paid my way through school, and it was the sport I coached for 7 years, but there’s something about the game of baseball that I can’t resist. I know I’m in the minority here, based on TV ratings, but there are few things I enjoy more than watching a 9-inning baseball game. And, my passion for the sport and commitment to training has really served me well in the baseball training community.
Another landmark moment in my life took place in May of 2008, when I married my wife. After 9 months of dating and a 9-month engagement (how about that for symmetry), we got hitched. And, talk about personal development….I’ve become a better EVERYTHING because of her.
To top things off, we had our first baby in August of 2009. His name, you guessed it….Chase (Utley). What can I say, my wife’s a great sport. Little Chase is already turning double plays.
Finally, to show my commitment for training the athlete and providing knock-out content on this site, I recently quit my teaching job with all its great benefits and stable income. How’s that for commitment!!
So, take it from a guy whose path to the top has been a combination of learning the science of the industry along with a boatload of practical experience in the field of strength and conditioning. As you can tell, I’ve made my share of mistakes along the way, so it’s my mission to thin out all the bad stuff, keep all the good stuff, and pass it along to you. I know the challenges of training large groups in search of very defined objectives and can relate to the hurdles you must leap to change the attitudes of people who have always trained a certain way.
Whatever your needs may be, I want The Athlete’s Insider to be your one-stop shop for all your athletic performance training needs.
Your Strength and Conditioning Coach,
Brian Utley, CSCS, PES
