Wofford College Athletics

MISSION STATEMENT
Our aim is to allow every student-athlete the best training opportunity with proper instruction and program implementation to create progressive gains in strength, speed, fitness levels, mobility and body composition over the tenure of the athletic career. This will be achieved through a created culture consumed with hard work, discipline, commitment, and knowledge of the craft of training in a highly competitive environment.

TRAINING PHILOSOPHY
Prescribed training is based on sport specific demands with a great emphasis on properly executing movement patterns and training within the assigned threshold to optimize abilities and capabilities.

Evaluation and Assessment
Utilize both objective and subjective measures to evaluate specific abilities and capabilities of the individual in addition to assessing general team deficiencies. Exercise prescription is then assigned based on needs of individual and team in conjunction with demands of the sport.

Individual Needs / Sport Specificity
All training is assigned with purpose reflective of the demands required for each sport to ensure optimal preparation for sport competition. Corrective movements performed with an integrity of functional patterns are used combined with prehab exercises to ensure a healthy student athlete.

Weight Training Movements
Perform ground-based exercises with free weights progressing from basic to compound movements. Emphasis on properly performing assigned movements through perfect patterns to optimize benefit through training as well as lower incidence of injury. Main exercise components involve olympic lifts, power lifts, posterior chain movements, and core strength.

Running Prescription
Analysis of energy system demands in conjunction with specific sport style of play and patterns are formulated to prescribe running volumes and intensities throughout the year. Qualities gained through a focus on sprint ability are trained through speed drills, shorts sprints, and the weight room.

Plyometric Training
Rate of force development is a critical quality which is trained in specificity to patterns and movements incorporated from the specific sport. This ability is enhanced through weight training, jump movements through different planes (horizontal, vertical, lateral) and external loaded throws.

Student-Athlete Health
It is critical to be healthy and able to participate and compete at a high level. To accomplish this, active steps are taken to use sport-specific prehab to reduce common injuries and ailments. Tracking and communicating stress levels from training, competition, and life allows for programming adjustments to better suit specific needs.

Recovery and Restoration
Properties of fatigue and ailment exist post-competition, therefore utilization of active restoration methods through mobility work, movement pattern emphasis, and extensive tempo running brings the student-athlete back to base-line levels to optimize preparation for the next competition.

Training Culture
Replicate the same competitive nature that takes place on gameday, wherein student-athletes are are motivated to accomplish set goals and work together as a cohesive unit towards victory. This is achieved through an awareness and consciousness that pushes for an intentionality amongst the population that makes a commitment for the opportunity at success.

THE FACILITY
Wofford alumnus and South Carolina Secretary of Commerce Joe Taylor donated $1 million for the renovation of the Curry Building into the Joe E. Taylor Athletic Building. The Taylor Building features a 7,000 square foot weight room and offices for athletic department staff. The building, located next to Gibbs Stadium, opened in June 2009. The weight room provides student-athletes in all eighteen sports offered by Wofford to develop physically and competitively in athletics and the world beyond. The facility is equipped with a wide variety of free weights, Olympic platforms and machines which will enable multiple sports to use the facility at the same time. 

For Taylor Center photos, click here.