"Jake Anderson is our secret weapon," says football coach Jeff McMartin. According to McMartin, Anderson's work has helped Central athletes make startling physical improvements in strength, conditioning and overall health.

Anderson spearheads Central's specialized
strength and conditioning program

For Central strength and conditioning coordinator Jake Anderson, it’s not just about bigger, faster, stronger.

It’s not about the bench press or 40-yard dash times.

The moments he savors in his job don’t take place beneath the lofty ceilings of Central’s spacious Ron Schipper Fitness Center.

It’s about a volleyball player’s sudden leap, her outstretched arms smothering what looked to be an opponent’s kill. It’s about a running back somehow maintaining his balance, spinning away from a hard-rushing linebacker and into the end zone. It’s even about the JV athlete he’s worked with earning a varsity spot and making his first basket.

Anderson said athletes come to him with dreams. He strives to help them become real.

“They’re in here investing their time,” he said. “You see when they come in here that they’ve got a passion for their sport and a vision of what they want to accomplish. Seeing them succeed on game day, that’s the most rewarding thing. It’s not just seeing them set records in the weight room. The reason they’re breaking those records is because they want to succeed on the court or on the field. I love watching them compete.”

Anderson pauses, then laughs.

“You’re giving me chills just talking about it,” he said.

Personalized approaches-- Anderson, in his third year on the Central staff, is making a huge impact on Dutch athletics teams.

The key, he said, is recognizing that each sport, each position and each athlete is different.

“We take all incoming athletes and perform a biomechanical analysis,” he said. “That tests for four problem areas: posterior shoulder deficiency, posterior chain deficiency, weak torso, and dynamic flexibility.

“Every strength and conditioning program we design is individualized for each sport, as well as tailored for each athlete, based on that biomechanical analysis.”

The approach also recognizes personality differences.

“Every team and every athlete react to different forms of motivation,” he said. “You don’t take a cookie-cutter approach to training. You have to identify everyone’s strengths and weaknesses.”

“I think Jake is incredible,” said volleyball coach Kent Clayberg. “He has an understanding of the differences from sport to sport and male to female. He individualizes programs to a degree I’ve never seen.

“He makes as big of an investment in each program as the players and coaches do.”

Former Hawkeye--A graduate assistant for two years with highly regarded University of Iowa football strength coach Chris Doyle, Anderson has adopted many of Doyle’s approaches, including focusing on the body core.

“It’s the most important aspect of strength training and by far the most neglected,” Anderson said. “If you’re weak in the torso, the force you apply to the ground will dissipate when you try to transfer that force to the upper body and you lose production. The more force we can apply to the ground, the faster we can run and the higher we can jump.”

Anderson also puts a big push on speed development, which means more than running in drills. Both linear and lateral change-of-direction speed are targeted.

“When we do speed training, we emphasize quality over quantity,” he said. “A lot of people automatically think that more is better. But we want to do speed training, not conditioning.

"Looking at football, which is a power sport, we get faster by developing properly in the weight room. And we always say that no matter how much weight we put on the bar, we want to move the bar as fast as we can.”

Year-round program-- A year-round program is also critical, and Central’s is divided into off-season, pre-season and in-season. Speed, strength and conditioning get attention throughout, but to varying degrees. Anderson wants athletes to seek their peek in strength in the off-season while transitioning into their peak for speed. In the preseason, conditioning gets the primary emphasis. In-season, athletes should maintain strength and even increase it. That’s where a lot of coaches go astray, Anderson said.

“We train twice a week during the season to ensure staying strong,” he said. “You’re only in the weight room 40 minutes. But that allows you to maintain your strength so that late in the season, when everybody else is worn down, we’re still strong and we can be a pretty tough team.”

Nutrition not overlooked-- Athletes typically give lots of attention to training their bodies, but little thought to what they put in them. Anderson also performs nutritional analysis and provides nutritional counseling.

“We continuously evaluate protein intake, carbohydrates and hydration, when to take it and how much,” he said. Translation: it’s the end of the traditional Krispy-Kreme-and-Mountain-Dew breakfast.

Nutrition is just as important as training, Anderson said. He points to the transforming off-seasons of a pair of Central football players. Senior center Ike Hammerly hovered around the 300-pound mark last year. Following Anderson’s regimen, he’s at 270 this fall.

“Ike lost 30 pounds but the kid’s an animal,” Anderson said. “He’s gotten probably two-fold stronger and can really move.”

Conversely, sophomore offensive lineman Nick Reed was under 200 pounds as a freshman. He’s up to 230.

“He’s gained 30 pounds but he’s not fat,” Anderson said. “The day of fat offensive linemen has past. You’ve got to have functional strength and be able to move to handle what you’ve got.”

Not just football-- Many Div. I strength coaches work with just one sport. Anderson prefers Central’s approach.

“The makeup of the football team is different than the volleyball team or the softball team,” he said. “Each brings something different.

Central is one of the only Iowa colleges to commit to a full-time strength and conditioning coaching position, rather than handing the duties to an assistant coach in football or another sport. Working with 700 student-athletes at Central and placing a high priority on individualized attention, Anderson can’t imagine working any other way.

“If you’re also coaching another sport, where’s your focus going to be?,” Anderson said. “My focus is on strength and conditioning and the individual athlete. There’s a lot of behind the scenes work involved in just getting ready for a lifting day.”

Central baseball coach Adam Stevens likes the results of Anderson’s work.

“Every single one of our guys got stronger in every category,” Stevens said. “That doesn’t just happen. It takes some leadership and Jake provides that. I know our guys really like him a lot.”

“Jake Anderson is our secret weapon,” said football coach Jeff McMartin. “To have a full-time strength and conditioning coach with his knowledge and background is a huge advantage. He literally transformed a number of our guys from the end of last season until August. The results are staggering.

“Not only is he a great strength and conditioning coach, but he’s a great motivator and a great person. He brings a lot of energy and enthusiasm to our program.”

Central strength and conditioning philosophy and strategies

Contact information
Jake Anderson, CSCS
Central College Strength and Conditioning Coordinator
812 University
Campus Box 6600
Pella, Iowa 50219
(641) 628-7695