Starting his third year as Director of Strength and Conditioning at UC San Diego, Myles Cooper is in charge as the program begins a new era with the impending debut of the Alex G. Spanos Athletic Performance Center, located on the northwest rim of Triton Track & Field Stadium on North Campus. Although many of the design and detail elements are still to come, the $4.27-million, 12,000-plus-square-foot facility is scheduled to open for use by Triton student-athletes this month. Cooper and his staff, along with the UCSD athletic trainers, will have a plethora of new equipment, as well as a more user-friendly schedule to work with, when the center is fully operational. In his second tour of duty at UCSD, Cooper, a graduate of Weber State with a master's in exercise physiology from Baylor, returned to La Jolla after serving on the strength and conditioning staff at UCLA. He took time recently to share thoughts on his new workplace, professional life, and outside interests.
Q: How is the opening of the Alex G. Spanos Athletic Performance Center going to change your professional effectiveness on a day-to-day basis?
COOPER: The new facility will allow us to be more efficient with our training, and provide us the opportunity to add more density to the athlete workouts, meaning we can do more work in a shorter amount of time.
Q: From your personal perspective, what's the most exciting facet of the new facility?
COOPER: Personally, I'd say the amount of space. At times, the pit in RIMAC gets very crowded. Now, there will be enough space for everyone.
Q: What are some of the new methods and programs you're going to be able to utilize?
COOPER: We have some technology called Tendo units. They allow us to measure the velocity of the bar while in use. Using velocity to train is a more accurate method to develop the specific physical qualities we want.
Q: What issues do you currently face with UCSD teams that will largely be solved with the Spanos opening?
COOPER: There will be an adjustment period with class and practice schedules, but when we're settled in, our student-athletes should find it much easier to accommodate both their training and academic schedules.
Q: How did you get started in the strength and conditioning field?
COOPER: After I completed graduate school, I began to intern at various universities. I've interned at the University of Utah, Marquette and UCLA. After my internship at UCLA, I was lucky enough to get my first paid position at UCSD.
Q: How much of your job is motivating the student-athletes you're working with? How do you do that?
COOPER: It's hard to put a percentage or ratio on it, but it is quite a bit. I try to use the team's natural dynamic as my guide to their motivation. Some teams are more intense, some more reserved, and others are somewhere in between on that continuum. Some like to be yelled at, some like to be coddled, and some don't need much. There are also individual needs, so you have to gear your tactics to them as well.
Q: How do you motivate yourself?
COOPER: Coffee.
Q: When you work out, what are some of your favorite forms of exercise?
COOPER: Olympic lifting (snatches, cleans), power lifts (squats, deadlifts), and playing sports on the weekend.
Q: You were a collegiate athlete yourself. How would you describe your athletic career? Do you miss being in the competitive arena?
COOPER: It was OK. It wasn't exactly what I wanted. I had some injury issues. Now that I'm a strength coach, I look back and see what my mistakes were and what I could have done to be a better athlete/player. Yes, I miss the competitive arena. Lifting weights and playing sports on the side helps.
Q: What do you think will be the next big area of growth in the athletic performance world?
COOPER: There is a system of athlete monitoring called Catapult. It is a GPS system that monitors athlete HR (heart rate), distance traveled, if they were sprinting or jogging, and if they have recovered from the previous training session. A lot of European soccer clubs are using it, and it's making its way into collegiate and professional settings in the States. It might be the best way to prevent overtraining to this point.
Q: Who are some of the athletes you've most admired?
COOPER: Probably Michael Jordan. I didn't appreciate it when I was younger, but he used to go so hard in practice, that the games were easy to him. To be able to keep that mentality and focus for your career, is extremely impressive. Now that I'm older, guys like Francesco Totti, Gigi Buffon, Deion Sanders, T.O. (Terrell Owens), and others who played professional sports after 34 and 35 years old, are freaks of nature. Playing at a high level for that long is insane. I'll play soccer for an hour on the weekend and can't walk right for three days.
Q: What sport that you've never competed in, would you like to try?
COOPER: Maybe tennis. I used to be really quick.
Q: Outside of the athletic realm, what are some of the things you like to do in your spare time?
COOPER: I'm trying to learn Spanish and Italian.
Q: Based on off-season training, what is one UC San Diego team you expect to take a big step forward in 2015-16?
COOPER: Cross country.
Previous Triton Q&A Features
Jordyn McNutt (Women's Soccer) September 8, 2015
Cameron McElfresh (Men's Soccer) September 1, 2015
Daniel Franz (Men's Cross Country) August 17, 2015
Meagan Wright (Women's Volleyball) August 10, 2015
Chase Cockerill (Men's Water Polo) August 3, 2015
Kelcie Brodsky (Women's Soccer) July 27, 2015
Kuba Waligorski (Men's Soccer) July 20, 2015
Nate Garcia (Cross Country) July 13, 2015
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