UCO Strength and Conditioning Coach Jacob Black has been a weight-room junkie since he was a young boy.
The Ohio native hasn’t slowed down since, and now, finds himself coaching over 250 athletes on eleven teams in what he calls, his ‘favorite place.’
“The best part about my job is that I get to help these kids and get to be in the weight room every day,” Black said. “Being around weight-lifting for a long time, this is what I have wanted to do from the start.”
Black graduated from Ohio University in 2007 after playing football for the Bobcats for two years. After a career-ending injury, Black joined the Ohio program as a graduate assistant strength and conditioning coach.
After arriving at UCO in 2008 as a graduate assistant, Black took charge as the Director of Strength and Conditioning this past year.
Holding a bachelor’s degree in Exercise Physiology and a master’s degree in Science Education from UCO, Black works with all sorts of different teams, from football, to women’s soccer, to rowing, and talked about the differences in each sports’ training.
“You have to know what kind of sport you are dealing with and what kind of movements those sports use,”said Black.
Not only does Black work with different sports, but more importantly, he works with both male and female athletes, which constitutes different styles of leadership and coaching.
“Men and women are totally two different people. You can’t just come into the weight room and yell and scream with women, as you do with men,” said Black. “You have to get women interested in working out, and use different things to get them to think the right way.”
Black works closely with the Broncho football program that has seen rough times in recent years, and talked about the focus of discipline, and focusing on minor details that make big differences, as a new staff enters in 2012.
“It’s a discipline issue. It’s all about the little things that turn into big things,” Black said. “Last year, discipline was an issue, as well as inconsistency. We have some athletic kids with potential, but right now we are just trying to get them to have the correct attitude and be more disciplined.”
The big, blonde-headed instructor who frequently wears a smile is focused on getting the UCO Football program back to national prominence.
“I want to help get football back to where they were in the late 90’s and early 2000’s. People didn’t want to come play here against UCO, and these kids need to realize their potential, and get back to where we were,” stated Black.
Obviously with Black being an expert in weight training, realizing that an athletes’ diet is as important as anything.
However, recently Black and his assistants have picked up a new diet, in which most people wouldn’t normally expect.
“Krispy-Kreme doughnuts,” said Black. “My assistant and I got them for free and solely ate them for a whole day. Surprisingly, we consumed less calories than we normally do.”
There you have it, the secret to having a beach body: doughnuts.
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