HMMR Podcast Episode 293: Inside the academy (with Taylor Lorbiecki)

Coaching at a military academy presents some unique challenges. In addition to preparing athletes to compete at a high level in their sport, strength coaches are also involved in the physical education program, basic training, and more. On this week’s episode coach Taylor Lorbiecki joins us to talk about some of her creative solutions she’s implemented at the Air Force Academy.

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Taylor Lorbiecki is an assistant strength and conditioning coach at the Air Force Academy, working with baseball, volleyball, rifle, and fencing. In addition she teaches physical education and is involved in tactical preparation as well. Prior to the Air Force she worked in the private sector, at University of Wisconsin-Platteville, and interned with US Ski and Snowboard. She graduated from University of Wisconsin-Platteville where she also played basketball.

Related resources

• This episode is brought to you by HMMR Plus. Become a member for full access to our videos, articles, and podcast archives.
• You can learn more about Lorbiecki on the Air Force Academy webpage and follow her on Instagram (@taylorlorbiecki). She’ll be presenting at GAIN 2023 as well.
• A compilation of HMMR Media’s resources on physical education can be found here. We also discussed La Sierra High School’s physical education program in this episode, which Vern Gambetta has written about before.
• Tracy Fober has been a big mentor of Lorbiecki. Fober has contributed articles to HMMR Media, and was a guest on Episode 125. She also has her own podcast with Donie Fox where Lorbiecki was a guest. Fox is also a HMMR contributor and a recent guest on GAINcast 261.
• More resources discussed on this episode: Video Lesson 12: Mini-band exercise library with Steve Myrland and GAINcast 257 with Bill Knowles

Key quotes and topics

• 0:00 – Introduction.
• 3:00 – Coaching at the Air Force Academy
• 7:00 – Understanding basic training: “So you have up to 250 basics at one location that you’re running through a PT session at the same time. So definitely posed some challenges.”
• 9:00 – Basic training past and present: “We took a 4-day rotation, and then came up with like a power day based around their jump and their 600 yard run, a strength day based around the calisthenics piece of pushups, pull up, sit-ups. And then we had two aerobic days.”
• 12:00 – Doing more with less equipment.
• 15:00 – Injury prevention: “The biggest thing for injury prevention, especially in the context of basic training, was simply putting together a cohesive, systematic approach to training them so it wasn’t random.” “You can’t train safety, right? Safety’s not a quality. You have to train all these other qualities in order to build that safety into it.”
• 20:00 – Routines and the value of names
• 23:00 – Equipment toolbox: “My equipment must haves: jump rope, mini band, pull up band, ladder, and mini-cones.”
• 26:00 – A defense of ladders: “Just because it’s not good for one thing doesn’t mean that it’s not good for everything.”
• 29:00 – Military influence on physical education.

Complete transcript

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