SPORTS EDITOR- OTONIEL GONZALEZ
ORIGINALLY PRINTED ON MARCH 2, 2023
A strength performance coach is a fitness professional who uses exercise prescription with the purpose of improving athletes’s performance in athletic competition and also help them with injury prevention and proper mechanics within their sports perfromances. This type of coach normally works close with the head coach or assistant coach of a sports team. Zak Snell is the strength performance coach for the student athletes at St. Mary’s University. He has had a special interest in sports, dating back to the age of four. He continued pursuing sports through young adulthood, playing football, baseball, track, and football through college. He has a degree in health and fitness and a Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin Stout. After graduation, he worked for the University of Louisville as strength intern with the football team. He did his master’s at Angelo State University in Coaching, Sport, Recreation and Fitness Administration. He worked at the University of Arizona before transferring to St. Mary’s University. He is in his second semester of his first year with St. Mary’s University.
Following his passion for sports, he created a performance company called Make it Athletics. On his website, maketiatthletics.com, Snell offers workouts that assists in injury reduction, speed technique, explosive power, fat loss, strength and core strength. These workouts are completely free, no matter the clients sport or skill level. He develops programs for people throughout the country. Snell is starting his doctorate in psychology, and he will focus his dissertation on athletics.
Coach Snell works with all athletes and teams except for baseball, which is managed by his assistant. He works with the other 12 teams. Snell must adapt his knowledge and workouts differently depending on the sport. He makes everything as specific to the sport and what the team needs. While one team may need more speed, another team may require strength, so he plans their workouts accordingly. Sometimes it is challenging to figure out what a team needs. Coach Snell talked with the coaches at the beginning of the year to determine how to provide the best help possible. Each coach has a clear idea of what his players and team needs. Coach Snell tries to attend as many games and team practices as he possibly can. It helps him determine if the team needs to improve speed or their movement in the court. It can be challenging to oversee so many athletes, but as in any other job, Snell finds a way to manage it. He doesn’t stay focused on the negative parts. Coach Snell enjoys that he isn’t “stuck training one team and doing the same work every day.” He loves that fact that he needs to adapt to whatever the team needs.
Besides his work on the weight room with the athletes and his company, Coach Snell has other hobbies and activities that help him relax. He has a special love for photography and designs, and has created graphics for the athletic teams at St. Mary’s University. Snell does this type of work during his free time. It gives him a chance to do work that isn’t strictly related to strength or performance. He is also into movies and music, as he used to play the drums. When Snell visit his family during vacation, he goes fishing and snowboarding.
Looking five years into the future, Snell “sees himself still working as a strength coach.” His goal is to stay with athletics and hopes to stay here at St. Mary’s University. Snell feels comfortable in a college environment. In the following years, he’d like his company to keep growing. However, Coach Snell explained that his company “is more of an extra hustle.” He expresses his love for what he does and is around the weight room every day. He trains every day; participating in CrossFit and fitness competitions. Snell loves being around the student athletes, as they have a good time and he gets the chance to know them better. Snell is not heavily involved in injury rehabilitation but receives reports from the athletic trainers These reports let him know if a player is injured, and he evaluates what to change in their workout. His work continues to help and improve that athletes performance on the court.