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I agree that the most difficult part of the job is the psychological part. If you get half assed results in the weight room you get half assed job on the field. The technology available nowadays provides more data points to measure progress.I respectfully differ. It's likely a lot simpler than it appears in terms of economy of methods than it appears. And a lot more difficult in terms of the psychological toughness and discipline it requires to master and sustain progress on the lifts, and coach and program these properly across a fleet of players. A set of heavy fives on deadlifts or squats is a cardio event. If you're not gassed afterward you're not lifting enough. A heart monitor isn't required. And if it is, then that's probably a sign that overtraining is knocking at the door.
Nutrition is certainly a central component, but it's peripheral to what a S&C coach does (or should do.) And muscle mass is muscle mass. It can't be lean. We gain muscle and fat when we train, as we can't have one without the other, and we lose both when we lose weight, which is also unavoidable. Am not trying to be argumentative but the topic is intriguing and central to football success.
The days of only using PRs on the core lifts are over. Those are still important but if a S&C coach isnt also incorporating things like VO2 max, heart rate (and whatever other measurements that these guys use now) to ensure the cardio is improving then he's wrong. As an example, I know Mizzou used to have an assistant on a monitor watching everyone's heart rate during sprints and they would use that to ensure everyone got the intended outcome from that workout. (Obviously a WR would need to run more than a OL to get their heart rate up).
Using all of this technology ultimately helps with the motivation/psychology part of it and allows the S&C coach to make adjustments on the spot instead of weeks later if he isn't getting results with a player. I'm sure Lou was incorporating this stuff but this field changes pretty frequently so I wouldn't be suprised if he has somewhat fallen behind since the Zook Era. That's just speculation on my part though.