With all this national andlocal attention, it’s onlynatural to assume that a

strength coach at USC would havemore than just a championship swag-ger. That’s what you’d expect, butthat’s not what USC Head StrengthCoach Chris Carlisle is about. Thisman is personable, humble and down-to-earth – and I’m happy to say he wasa pleasure to interview.

The Education of a

Strength Coach

As with many strength coaches,Coach Carlisle started with a footballbackground. He played on the offen-sive line at North Iowa AreaCommunity College in 1980 and thentransferred to Chadron State Collegein Nebraska, where he earned All-Areahonors and started for three years.Academically, he went on to receive a

FEATURE STORY

The University of Southern California hasearned 11 national championships in football andhas produced seven Heisman Trophy winners

and 141 All-Americans. In fact, Street & Smithranked USC number two behind Notre Dame inits list of the “Greatest College Football Programsof All Time.” And it’s not just in football that USCexcels: in just the past four years they have wonnine national championships in six differentsports. USC rules!

USC Head Strength Coach Chris Carlisle

40 | BIGGER FASTER STRONGER MARCH/APRIL 2006

FootballStrength TrainingSecrets from USC

FootballStrength TrainingSecrets from USCHow strength coach Chris Carlisle makes national championships a reality

BY KIM GOSS

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master’s degree in history, which suggeststhat just about everything he learnedabout strength coaching he learnedthrough his own means.

Coach Carlisle’s first strength coach-ing job was in 1985 at Dodge HighSchool in Nebraska. The following yearhe joined the coaching staff at BlythevilleHigh School in Nebraska, where he set-tled down for the next six years. In 1991it was on to the University of Arkansas,where Carlisle served as a graduate assis-tant strength coach. Two years later hebecame the head football coach andstrength coach at Subiaco Academy inArkansas. In 1998 Carlisle made the bigtime as the associate head strength andconditioning coach for the University ofTennessee. That first year the Volunteers

won the national title, and Carlislestayed there for another two years.

Although his career at this time hadtaken off, Carlisle found himself facing apersonal tragedy. In December of 2000he found out that he had Hodgkin’s dis-ease, a life-threatening cancer thatrequired him to undergo radiation thera-py. Despite his illness, in February of2001 Carlisle was hired by Head FootballCoach Pete Carroll as head strengthcoach for USC. He managed to keepsecret his cancer and the treatments thatrequired him to make frequent trips backto Tennessee. By that summer his illnesshad gone into remission, and he has beencancer-free ever since.

In this exclusive interview, CoachCarlisle answered all my questions with

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Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum

USC Head Football Coach Pete Carroll

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frankness and honesty. Here are hiswords.BFS: You’ve trained many collegiate ath-letes who have gone on to the NFL. Arethere any common characteristics you’reseeing among these athletes?CARLISLE: I see a great work ethic.They have the attitude that they can getbetter and are always striving to find that

edge to make them better.BFS: Is there a concern with these typesof athletes about them developing aprima donna attitude that could affecttheir work ethic and the morale of theteam?CARLISLE: That could happen, butonly if you give them the avenue tobecome a prima donna. Coach Carroll

has established an environment of hardwork and the idea that there isn’t an easyway to get around things. And when theyounger players see the class ahead ofthem working their butts off and beingsuccessful, they say, “That must be theway it gets done!”BFS: Do the coaches pretty much leaveyou alone, or do they have input intohow you condition athletes?CARLISLE: I enjoy great trust from thecoaching staff. My first year at USC,Coach Carroll was down quite often,watching his athletes – it was his firstseason at USC also. Now the coachesare around to stay in touch with the ath-letes and let them know how importantthey believe their training is to compet-ing at the highest level.BFS: How do you work with the footballcoaches in regard to personalizing theworkout programs for your athletes?CARLISLE: We’re in constant commu-nication with the coaches upstairs. Theygive us a blueprint of what they wanttheir kids to be, their abilities and inabil-ities, and we give them a program toturn their weaknesses into strengths.BFS: What areas are new athletes com-ing into your program usually deficientin?CARLISLE: I think the core is thebiggest deficiency that they have. Theabdominal and low-back areas are thefirst to go when these athletes start work-ing at the level that we put them at. Ialso find that too many young coaches atthe high school level are too concernedwith “how much” an athlete can lift,rather than how well they perform thoselifts.BFS: Do you have a general coachingphilosophy about strength training?CARLISLE: My philosophy is simple:How to, How fast, How much! We firstteach great technique, then we teachgreat speed, and only then do we worryabout how much they can lift.

FEATURE STORY

42 | BIGGER FASTER STRONGER MARCH/APRIL 2006

Junior strong safety Darnell Bing has been a key to USC’s pass defense.

BFS: Do you find that athletes with abackground of strictly powerlifting havea problem with movement?CARLISLE: Yeah, we have to do a lot ofretraining when we find athletes likethat. Football is not how much you canbench. We haven’t had a 500-poundbencher in four years, or for that matter a700-pound squatter, because those num-bers are not essential to becoming a bet-ter athlete. Agan, the key to being asuccessful football player is movement –that’s what the game is about.BFS: What type of field tests do you usewith your athletes?CARLISLE: We’ll duplicate what theytest in the combine. BFS: There’s criticism about the 40-yarddash not being that applicable to foot-ball. What’s your opinion?CARLISLE: There are two tests that aredone that have little or no bearing onbeing a football player, or any athlete forthat matter, and that’s the 40-yard-dashand the bench press. Football is not a lin-ear sport. It’s a multiple-direction sport.A power sport. An explosive sport. And aburst sport. The 40 is a straight-aheadrun, and the bench press is a static move-ment. I have seen guys who have hadgreat 40s and bench presses and havebeen great athletes, but I have also seenguys who had great 40s and great bench-es but couldn’t play because they lackedoverall athleticism. These tests give meno indication that an athlete can play thegame.BFS: You have a reputation for going outof your way to help high school coaches,allowing them to visit and call, andanswering their questions by mail. Whydo you take the time, being as busy asyou are?CARLISLE: At heart I’m a high schoolcoach. Of my 20 years, about 12 of thosewere at the high school level – that’s whoI am. And ten years ago I was the guywho was calling and asking the dumb

questions – I’m the king of dumb ques-tions. So when high school coaches takethe time to call me or to come up andvisit, I’m going to go out of my way tohelp them. Our doors are wide open –we’ve never turned anybody away fromcoming to watch us train and ask all thequestions they want. BFS: Are you still asking questions?CARLISLE: Yes, I still go out today and

seek out experts, such as Jimmy Radcliffeup at the University of Oregon. If youget so caught up with being right andthinking you’re on the cutting edge, thenyou’re in trouble because the day youthink you’ve got it figured out is the daythat you’re in trouble.BFS: Can you give us an example?CARLISLE: When I was coming out ofcollege I thought I was the smartest

www.bigger fasterstronger.com 1-800-628-9737 | 43

Sophomore wide receiver Dwayne Jarrett has been a favorite target of quarter-back and 2004 Heisman Trophy Winner Matt Leinart.

coach in the world. I had it allfigured out – I had been aplayer, and when I graduatedfrom college I went right intoa head coaching job because Iknew so much. But in my firstgame when it was third and24, and I didn’t have that onmy call sheet, I said to myself,“Gee, I don’t know what I’mdoing!” And so for the last 19years I’ve been working to findout how to do this thing right.But the problem is that themore I’ve learned, the more Ifind out I don’t know becauseevery answer spawns five newquestions.BFS: Is there any generaladvice you give the highschool coaches who come tovisit you?CARLISLE: I tell them that Ido what I understand, whichis why I don’t use bands or dostrongman training. I justdon’t understand these train-ing methods enough to applythem to my athletes. If a coachdoesn’t understand somethingwe’re doing, they should keepasking questions until theyunderstand it – and theyshouldn’t apply it until theyunderstand it.BFS: What type of academicbackground should a strength coach pur-sue?CARLISLE: I don’t think that academicsis all that important to being a goodcoach – hey, I got a master’s degree inhistory! And I’ve seen a lot of kinesiology

people who could not coach an athlete tomove. They knew all the muscles, liga-ments and joints and everything, butthey couldn’t coach an athlete to movecorrectly or motivate a large group ofathletes to train hard. Having said that,

one of the keys to being asuccessful coach is to sur-round yourself with greatcoaches, and I attributemuch of my success to beingable to surround myself withsome very smart people.BFS: Here’s a loaded ques-tion: What do you think ofthe BFS program?CARLISLE: I was luckyenough to see Coach Shepardin Nebraska when I wascoaching in Dodge,Nebraska, back in 1985, andBFS Coach Jim Brown fromPoplar Bluff came and helpedme when I was at Blytheville.I think the BFS program isorganized in such a way thatit is instructive and construc-tive for the high school situa-tion. If you want to add bellsand whistles, that’s when yougo to the colleges and pickup parts of their program.But I think that as far as ahigh school program goes,BFS is tremendous. In fact, ifyou look at your programand you look at my program,there are a lot of commonali-ties – we even do the dot sys-tem that was developed byBFS.BFS: When working with an

athlete such as Reggie Bush, are youmore conservative with your trainingbecause of the risk of injury?CARLISLE: I look at athletes as clay.When you’re working with clay, you canimprove that clay and make it into a fin-

FEATURE STORY

44 | BIGGER FASTER STRONGER MARCH/APRIL 2006

I think the BFS program is organized in such a way that itis instructive and constructive for the high school situation.

—COACH CARLISLE

Junior LenDale White has been one of USC’s premier tail-backs and will be heading to the NFL this year.

ished piece. An athlete inthe NFL is a finished prod-uct, and pretty much allyou want to do with anathlete at that level is keephim healthy. And this iswhy I do not want to goon to become a strengthcoach for the NFL.BFS: Do you have any lift-ing standards for your ath-letes?CARLISLE: We keep ournumbers at 3-4-5. If I get aguy who is power cleaning300, benching in the 400sand squatting in the 500s –that’s enough. I don’t needa 500-pound bench or a700-pound squat becauseit takes so long to achievethose numbers and thechances for injuries sky-rocket with those weights.BFS: How much musclehas Reggie Bush put onunder your program?CARLISLE: He went from180-185 pounds as a fresh-man to 205 when he cameinto his junior season. Soover three years we’ve beenable to put a solid 20pounds of muscle on him.BFS: What are his bestlifts?CARLISLE: He can power clean 330,bench 425 and squat 550.BFS: What do you think of the 40-yard-dash times you hear about in highschool? Do you take them with a grainof salt?CARLISLE: Sure. A lot of young menwho are 4.3 in high school are 4.5 whenthey run their first 40 here. But again,we’re not really tied into the 40-yard-dash time – we want to see the kidsmove.

BFS: What was Bush’s 40 time as afreshman?CARLISLE: He came in here as a 4.3guy, and this year even with the extra 20pounds ran a 4.28 electronic. But Reggieis not just a linear guy – his speed issuch that he can stop and go in a coupleof steps. BFS: We hear about problems with col-lege athletes, such as the type of troublethat Marcus Vick has gotten himselfinto. What are you doing special at USC

to avoid this from hap-pening?CARLISLE: It’s toughbecause these are collegekids, and at USC wehave the same problemsas everyone else. If yougo through the policeblotters of any major col-lege town, you’re goingto see college kids gettingin trouble. The onlything is, people knowwho Marcus Vick is. It’snot that he’s the only col-lege kid in that wholeuniversity who has donesomething wrong; it’sjust that those other kidsdon’t get their names inthe news. Our approachis to try to educate thekids that the team comesfirst and to not do any-thing to embarrass theteam, the school, yourselfor your family. BFS: What advice wouldyou give someone whowants to become aDivision I strength coachlike yourself?CARLISLE: Don’t do it!If you enjoy 12 to 14hours a day, 12 monthsof the year and living in

obscurity, then I think it’s a great pro-fession for you. You’re never in an off-season, which is why my golf game isgone. I wasn’t a bad golfer when I wascoaching on the field, but when I gotinto the weightroom my time was gone.And I think for the amount of hoursyou spend in this profession, if you’relooking at this from a financial stand-point, this is the wrong place to be.Being a strength coach is somethingyou’ve got to love to do.

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2005 Heisman Trophy Winner Reggie Bush runs a 4.28 in the 40and power cleans 330 pounds!

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