ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- In preparing for the inaugural Train Like the Pros Broncos Clinic, Strength and Conditioning Coach Rich Tuten pored through binders full of notes from his more than 30 years in the business.
Tuten, who recently finished his 16th season with the Broncos, said the trip down memory lane helped him better organize the ideas he hoped to convey to the high schoolers and their coaches at the event and also offered a bit of perspective on his own career.
"Sometimes we take things for granted because we have great athletes and great facilities to train in," Tuten said. "I wanted to make sure this was as user-friendly as possible, so everyone could benefit from the lessons."
Tuten put his research into action on Saturday, treating approximately 150 Denver-area high school coaches and athletes to a day filled with fitness presentations and demonstrations at the team's Dove Valley training facility.
During the six-hour clinic, Tuten and other members of the team's strength and conditioning staff stressed the importance of strength, speed, power and agility-specific training in an athlete's training regimen and demonstrated the concepts that are key to improving each.
Tuten said he hoped the 120-or-so coaches and approximately 30 athletes left the Broncos Conditioning Center with a better understanding of how to design "sound, safe and productive" workouts.
Tuten credited Strength and Conditioning Assistant Justin Lovett, a former high school strength and conditioning coach, for helping him craft his messages to the audience. Each person in attendance took home about 100 pages of handouts on the topics presented.
"We tried to show them how to be more productive in the same amount of training time," Tuten said. "One of our biggest goals coming into this was to teach them to maximize that time and improve efficiency."
Among other lessons, Tuten and his staff demonstrated proper running form and starting stance for the 40-yard dash, technique for strength workouts using 200-pound tires and 16-pound sledge hammers and even how to complete a full-body workout on suspension ropes using only body weight for resistance.
Tuten said the comprehensive clinic was designed to be non-sport specific, and he encouraged any local coach or athlete interested in improving their training program to attend.
The event also included a pair of outside presentations to raise important athlete health issues. A representative from Rocky Mountain Youth Sports Medicine addressed concussion awareness and prevention, and a representative from Western Dairy Association added to the discussion on nutrition with a talk about the importance of milk in an athlete's diet.
In the future, Tuten hopes to be able to hold two separate clinics -- a hands-on session for players and another designed to instruct coaches. But the coach also declared the Broncos' first edition of the clinic a success, saying he hoped the wide-ranging presentation offered even the most-seasoned coaches some new ideas on training athletes.
"Like I told everybody on Saturday," Tuten said, "we tried to put together 30 years of experience into about six hours."
