About this episode

Tucker Bachand discusses building a strength and conditioning program from scratch at Westfield State University and the importance of coaching culture.

We sit down with Tucker Bachand — Head Strength & Conditioning Coach at Westfield State University, the first ever to hold the role there — to talk about what it actually takes to build something from scratch, coach 18 teams with no budget and no force plates, and why Division III might be where the most honest coaching is happening. In this Playbook: Buy-In Isn't Built on a Whiteboard: Standards mean nothing if athletes don't care about you first. Tucker's approach to culture starts well before anyone touches a barbell — knowing names, showing up to games, supporting inner murals, having real conversations. Creativity Is the Real Equipment: No force plates. No 150lb dumbbells. A 2,000 square foot weight room with three double-sided racks and 18 teams rotating through. Tucker doesn't complain about it — he engineers around it. Tri-sets, quad-sets, fat grips, bands on dumbbells, jump shrugs when the clean breaks down. The Industry Talks Progressions — Nobody Talks Regressions: When do you go back down? Tucker and Manny dig into one of the most skipped conversations in S&C: knowing when an athlete isn't ready to advance and having the guts to regress them. TeamBuildr…

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