Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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Under the Dome Five Questions With … Director Of Strength And Conditioning For Olympic Sports Tony Rolinski Tony Rolinski, a member of the University of Notre Dame strength and conditioning staff since 1998, has been the director of strength and conditioning for Olympic sports since 2010. He is responsible for the development and implementation of the strength and conditioning programs for 25 Irish sports, while continuing to have day-to-day oversight for the men's basketball and hockey teams. Blue & Gold Illustrated: How do you handle the strength and conditioning programming for 25 varsity sports at Notre Dame? Rolinski: "I have a great staff of six individuals underneath me. I work directly with men's basketball and hockey, and our six assistants have two or three sports themselves. "It's a tough task to keep 700 athletes going with that limited amount of people, but we find a way to do that." Blue & Gold Illustrated: How do you determine what type of conditioning each sport or athlete needs? Rolinski: "With our background as strength coaches, we look at how the sport is played — is it more aerobic or is it anaerobic? It's the strength coaches' job to get with the coaches and devise a plan in terms of how the game is played. "So obviously field sports like soccer and lacrosse have a more aerobics component because they do a lot more running, whereas hockey and basketball are more anaerobic so we don't train them with long distances." ▼ Blue & Gold Illustrated: Why is having a detailed strength and conditioning program impor- tant to Notre Dame studentathletes? Rolinski: "Our job is to help them maximize their genetic Rolinski potential, especially at this D-I level. Helping the kids prevent injuries, helping them improve their sports skills and produce more power so they can perform at a higher level, that's just part of the mantra now across the country." Blue & Gold Illustrated: Why is there more of an emphasis on strength and conditioning at the collegiate level nowadays than 20 years ago? Rolinski: "Times have changed, and the competitiveness of the sports and the amount of pressure that is on these coaches to win and to produce and the skill of the athletes [have risen]. "We get freshmen who've never had to partake in a rigorous strength and conditioning program in high school. So when they get here, the speed of the game, the level of competition, all that gets raised really quick." 1Blue & Gold Illustrated: What makes the Notre Dame strength and conditioning program unique? Rolinski: "I think with our resources [at Notre Dame] we are ahead of the curve. There's a lot of technology out there from a strength and conditioning standpoint that we try to stay on top of. "We don't think outside the box, we think like there is no box. We are unique because we are Notre Dame and [because of the] class loads, we have to have a detailed plan so the athletes can go to practice, study hall, training table so they can get their quality nutrition." — Staci Gasser Click here to listen to Blue & Gold Illustrated's complete interview with Rolinski.