Mickey Marotti, Ohio State’s athletic performance staff, will hold the first strength and conditioning clinic in four years

For the first time since 2019, Mickey Marotti and the rest of the Ohio State athletic performance staff opened the doors of the Buckeyes weight room to coaches and fitness professionals for a football strength and conditioning clinic specifically designed to provide a glimpse into how Ohio State trains its players to perform at their best.

Marotti saw the clinic as a great opportunity for his staff to both share their knowledge and learn from other professionals in the strength and fitness industry.

I think the value is in helping to provide continuing education for coaches, strength professionals and everyone involved. It’s a great platform for our staff, Marotti said Eleven warriors. And we are also here to learn. We’re trying to learn how to keep up with training, nutrition, and everything that’s going on. So it’s been great.

More specifically, Marotti wants to impart as much knowledge as possible to high school coaches, knowing that they play an integral role in preparing players to be as ready as they need to be for the college level.

We rely a lot on our high school coaches, our strength coaches and our coaches to help develop them before they come here,” Marotti said. The better job they do at the high school and developmental level when they come here; like today, you have to be ready to play. So if we can help that system that promotes strength, conditioning, nutrition, fitness, recovery, all sports science, I think it helps everybody.

Marotti began the clinic with a presentation on what he considers the seven non-negotiable principles of Ohio State’s strength and conditioning program: Competitiveness, Effort, Toughness, Accountability, Leadership, Brotherhood and Development. While he says strength and conditioning has changed a lot in the past four years, he says these principles have remained consistent throughout his 36-year career in the industry.

Marotti also explained how the Buckeyes built their offseason strength and conditioning program starting with their ongoing winter training program. Ohio State just wrapped up its fifth week of winter practice, with two weeks remaining before spring practice begins. After a week of the Buckeyes holding their famous mat workouts, Marotti said he’s pleased with how winter workouts have gone so far.

They are doing well, Marotti said. Every team is different. Every day is an opportunity to learn for everyone. The boys work really hard. The most fun part of the offseason for us is seeing the team take shape, and you only see that as a high school senior. So that’s great to see.

I woke up Mat Drills like pic.twitter.com/kRqUKXlU59

Ohio State Football (@OhioStateFB) February 15, 2023

Other Saturday clinic presenters included assistant strength and conditioning coaches Kenny Parker, Zach Higgins and AT Turner, the latter of whom just joined the Ohio State staff in January after spending last year at Ole Miss. Each of them demonstrated some of the drills used by Ohio State. to help their players get stronger and faster and promote competition during the offseason.

Team nutritionist Kaila Olson also presented Saturday’s clinic, where she discussed how the Buckeyes create individualized nutrition plans for each player and the importance of proper nutrition for players to maximize performance. Both Marotti and Olson talked about the importance of staff-wide collaboration to Ohio State’s success, which made it important for Olson to be a part of the clinic.

We have a collaboration between strength and athletic training and everyone that really helps get everyone on the same page,” Olson told Eleven Warriors. And I think one of the biggest things is nutrition, speaking at the strength conference has really just kind of helped grow that collaboration.

Additional speakers at Saturday’s clinic included Tennessee Titans director of athletic performance Frank Piraino and Cincinnati director of athletic performance Niko Palazeti, who was one of Marottis’ assistants at Ohio State the past six years before leaving for Cincinnati in January. The clinic also featured Detroit Lions Director of Athletic Performance Mike Clark and Louisville Assistant Athletic Director of Student-Athlete Health and Performance Pat Ivey, and Marotti was honored that they all traveled to Columbus to attend the event.

I was like humble, like nervous to get up and speak in front of those guys. Because they’ve been in the business so long and done such a great job, Marotti said.

Former assistant director of strength and conditioning Niko Palazeti returned to Ohio State on Saturdays for a strength and conditioning clinic.

The clinic was put on hiatus for three years due to COVID-19, but Marotti says Ohio State athletic performance is now back to normal. And he said events like the Saturdays provide networking opportunities for him and his staff that attending Zoom clinics simply doesn’t.

Just because we get to connect with coaches, professionals in our field, which we don’t have, Marotti talked about what he enjoyed the most on Saturdays at the clinic. Zoom doesn’t get it. It’s the relationships you have and develop. I meet maybe five or six future interns here at the clinic. There are young students who may be interns. And it’s happened a lot. So it’s so exciting to see that.