Good morning. New research challenges using ice for muscle injuries, and Oklahoma State lands a two-time national championship strength coach. Let's get into it.
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NEWS
🏀 Oklahoma State Lands Two-Time National Champion Gavin Roberts
Oklahoma State has hired Gavin Roberts to lead men's basketball strength and conditioning, pending board approval. Roberts spent the last five years as UConn's Director of Sports Performance, helping the Huskies to back-to-back national championships in 2023 and 2024. Before UConn he was at his alma mater Purdue from 2018 to 2021, working alongside current OSU head coach Steve Lutz and helping the Boilermakers to the 2019 Elite Eight.
Roberts has trained a long list of pros along the way, including two-time NCAA player of the year Zach Edey, Jaden Ivey, Donovan Clingan, and Stephon Castle. His approach blends traditional strength work with force plate analytics, GPS tracking, velocity-based training, and readiness monitoring.
🧊 New Research Challenges Ice Bath For Muscle Injuries
Sports scientist Marco Cardinale and colleagues published two studies, one in The Journal of Physiology and one in Experimental Physiology, that take a hard look at what actually happens to injured muscle tissue under different thermal treatments. In the injury study, 34 participants had real muscle damage induced through eccentric contractions, then were assigned to daily cold (12°C), thermoneutral (32°C), or hot (42°C) water immersion for ten days, with biopsies taken along the way.
Hot water immersion came out on top. The hot group reported less pain, had significantly lower circulating markers of muscle damage (creatine kinase and myoglobin), and showed higher expression of heat shock proteins that help repair damaged cells. Cold water immersion did not improve perceived pain, did not reduce damage markers, and appeared to blunt the cellular recovery signals the body uses to rebuild tissue. Cardinale's framing is that the inflammatory response after training is the signal to rebuild, not the enemy, and that ice may be interfering with the very process coaches are trying to support. Read More
💪 More S&C Movement
Belmont hired Cameron Ringstead as Director of Sports Performance, coming over from Elon where he spent eight years and worked his way up to the same role. He helped the Phoenix to conference championships across eight different programs and directed training for MLB first-round pick George Kirby.
UTRGV announced the hiring of Chris Seroka as head strength and conditioning coach. Seroka brings 30 years of experience, including 17 years at North Texas and the last eight at Texas Southern, where he oversaw S&C for 350 student-athletes and worked with three consecutive SWAC tournament championship men's basketball teams.
Alabama women's basketball added Keldon Peak as associate strength and conditioning coach after a four-year stint at Oklahoma. The Sooners went .740, won two Big 12 championships, and finished as the only Power Six team in the top 11 nationally in pace during his time with the women's program.
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