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The Mark Stoops era has brought a scientific approach of strength and conditioning to the University of Kentucky football program. This approach in conjunction with Stoops is headed up by Erik Korem. Korem said he is not the strength and conditioning coach. He has someone who holds that title but he oversees the entire operation. Korem said he’s the sports science side of things; helps do training and some field work.
Korem worked with Stoops at Florida State and was very instrumental in helping them achieve the second best defense in the nation in 2012. One of his key elements is a fulltime nutritionist Monica Fowler. The objective is to lose fat and gain muscle. “We don’t want fat football players,” the ebullient Korem said. “We want to monitor their intake before, during and after training. Gaining strength is easy but how does it transfer to the game? This is the thing that’s hard and it’s not an overnight thing. I don’t care if a guy comes in benching 400-pounds – do they play the game on their hands?”
Korem said they want to change their (players) bodies. You constantly hear coaches say they want to get bigger, faster, and stronger. “Here at UK we use the ‘Olympic Model’”, the coach said - higher, faster, and stronger.” He said when they arrived here they did a body composition analysis on every player and they changed the training table (cafeteria), eating habits and sleep habits. Some of the players stayed the same weight but lost body fat.
There are no cookie-cutter programs at UK. Each player’s strength and conditioning is approached differently according to their needs. When asked about sports science, which he specializes in he said – “this is not a classroom subject offered in this country or a degree in our curriculum in the United States as it is overseas. This is commonplace overseas.” Korem said he had just returned from a training session in Australia. “We will never get away from hard work, just be smarter at it.”
We asked the sports scientist (Korem) how they approach a guy that comes into the program 5-foot-8, 150-pounds and get him ready to play in the SEC. He may not be a guy that puts on weight easily. He cited a couple examples – wide receiver DeSean Jackson of the Philadelphia Eagles who may be 175-pounds soaking wet and running back Darren Sproles of the New Orleans Saints. He said Jackson catches balls and you watch him run away from you and Sproles squirts away from you when you think you’ve got him hemmed up. “You get the kid up to 170-pounds and all of a sudden you may just take away what makes him a great football player so it’s slow methodical change,” the coach explained. “With these athlete tracking devices we are measuring his power output and speed weekly. You have to be smart about it.”
What about the youngster that hasn’t had good weight training prior to arriving and a player like Herchel Walker who never lifted weights? The coach said -“We have the one-percent such as the Walker’s, the Bo Jacksons, and the Dion Sanders of the world. All they need is to show up for practice and play the game.
Korem said he interfaces with the coaches to formulate practice plans. He provides feedback on the physical readiness of a player and when they need to cut back on a particular day’s work. “He could be injured, coming off a tough classroom test, death in the family, or broke up with a girlfriend. There’s no need to slam him that day.”
How does all this translate to better production? He said they have a theme around there that’s a spin-off of the TV serial “24” featuring Jack Bauer. “It’s the 22-hour rule. We have them twenty-hours a week and it’s what you do the other twenty-two hours not here. We empower them through education to apply self discipline.”
Erik Korem said he’s got five non-negotiable – effort, respect, punctuality, technician, and the Shembaum Rule. Steve Schembaum who is Korem’s good friend says – “light each other up so you can light the opponent up.” You don’t laugh at him (teammate), you laugh with him.
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