Coach Deets is the Director of Athletic Performance for the Men’s and Women’s Basketball teams at Mississippi State University. Before Mississippi State, Deets was the Director of Performance at the University of Arkansas. He has also coached at Oklahoma State, Texas Christian, and Northwestern State.
When I first heard about Sparta I was hesitant. I’ve been doing performance programs a certain way for a long time. How am I supposed to believe this piece of technology? Would I have to change my whole philosophy or program design?
The answer is simple. No! Sparta Science doesn’t have to change who we are. With the Sparta signatures it gives us, it helps us become even better at what we do. For example, if we had squats on the workout card for that days lift, we would break it down into three groups. Load, Explode, Drive. Load group would do heels elevated belt squat with low reps and heavy weight. Explode group would do suitcase squats. Drive group would do a single leg squat with moderate weight and high reps. A coach would just have to make minor tweaks to their workouts.
There were two incidences where I really found the value of the signatures. The first (above) was a fatigue scan. The player came in and his drive went through the roof. We had him come do extra recovery boots and massage for two days. We did, however, allow him to practice. The thinking was that if we did all the recovery modalities, it would bring his CNS back to normal. Wrong. The only thing that changed the signature was giving him two days off.
The second was when I had a player whose scan predicted triple risk of hip and core injury due to excessive stiffness. That day in practice he strained his Psoas. If we have a warning scan such as this, we modify and have the athlete come in twice a day to work on mobility.
Sparta has really helped me become a better coach. I haven’t had to change my philosophy or overhaul my program. It just gives coaches a better understanding of each players’ needs. This will allow for maximal gains and performance on the court.