George Adams is entering his fourth year as the Head Strength and Conditioning Coach at Madison-Ridgeland Academy. Adams oversees all aspects of the MRA athletics strength and conditioning program. Since arriving at MRA, Adams has been a part of eight state championships (three football, three boys’ & girls’ track and field, and two boys’ basketball). He has served on the NHSSCA Mississippi Advisory Board since 2020, was named the 2022 Mississippi State Coach of the Year, and is now the Mississippi State Director for the association.
Coach Adams has also served as a strength and conditioning coach with the Minnesota Vikings and at the following college athletic programs: Methodist University, Southern Miss, Marshall University, University of Georgia, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, and the University of Georgia.
Adams discusses his strength training philosophies and the values he works to instill in his athletes, and how he begins the process before they become varsity athletes.
What are the core values of your training philosophy?
“The non-negotiable tasks that we ask of our student-athletes is that they have a great attitude about training, give great effort during the session, and are consistent. Now we understand that you will not be at your best every day, but for those days, we want our athletes to give the very best they can.”
What do you do in your training program that makes it unique?
‘I’m not sure anything is ground-breaking in terms of uniqueness. We really focus on the basics, as do many other programs. We put a huge focus on “how we lift” with our junior high programs to develop a robust base, both technically and in work capacity, before these athletes move onto our varsity program. The demand of intent will not change at the varsity level, but we shift toward athletic development, capitalizing on the base we built over the junior high years.”
You’ve spoken about creating a winning culture in the strength training room. What are ways that you develop this culture with your athletes?
“We encourage competition early and often. We believe that competition will breed success. Constantly challenging our kids to push their capacity limits of what they believe they can do. Doing this through our core values allows them to build confidence in themselves and their teammates.”
What trends do you see impacting the profession in the future?
“I think the biggest trend will be data collection and implementation. Some programs are doing this at a high level, and there will be more in the future. Many programs collect data but using that to drive performance needs and programming will be huge. Hard work will always be rewarded. However, pairing hard work with scientific data will be a drastic but needed improvement to the field.”
Where do you go for continuing education, and what is the best piece of strength training & conditioning advice you have received?
“Articles, clinics, and conferences are great, but being able to talk one-on-one with another coach or in a small group is unmatched. It’s so helpful to build trust with other coaches–it gives you people you can lean on when something comes up, personally or professionally. Having people who don’t have the same views as you is essential to growth because it gets you out of the proverbial echo chamber.
“The best advice I have received is ‘Keep it Stupid Simple.’ Simple does not mean easy or mundane. You can program and advance very well with the basics. Simple explanation with complex reasoning. “
What do you hope for a student-athlete to learn while in your program?
“My wish for every student-athlete leaving our program is that they have thoroughly learned the value of our core principles and have seen that those simple things can help them in all aspects of life. Secondly, I hope they understand basic programming knowledge so that they can rely on themselves for physical training once they are no longer inside a structured strength and conditioning program.”
