Courtesy of Connecticut College Athletics Department
“My approach is to give you guys the accountability to understand that you’re capable of more than you think.” This is the philosophy and goal of John Pirla, who is the Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach in Connecticut College’s Athletic Department. Pirla, who has been in the Athletic Department since fall of 2022, takes a no nonsense approach to strength and conditioning, which is incredibly popular among Conn’s athletes.
“What’s helpful [for me] is understanding when [an athlete] needs a kick in the ass, and when you need a pat on the back, because both of those are important,” said Pirla. “If you’re only ever given a kick in the ass, you’re always going to think that you’re shit, and if you’re only ever given a pat on the back, you’re going to think that you’re perfect, and nobody is perfect.”
Prior to working at Conn, Pirla worked as a Strength and Conditioning Coach at Notre Dame West Haven in West Haven, CT, in particular working with an elite hockey academy. He also spent time at Central Connecticut State University, UConn, and several other private facilities.
At Conn, he works a very busy daily schedule fulfilling the strength and conditioning needs of the Camels’ various varsity teams. “[My daily schedule] depends on the day, and it depends on the season, honestly,” said Pirla. “The fall season is always the most busy because that’s when we have the most in season and preseason teams. I open the gym every day around 7:00 a.m., regardless of what team I’m starting with, and I have my last lift of the day around 4:00 or 5:00 p.m.” Pirla says that he usually isn’t as busy on Tuesdays or Fridays due to the competition schedule of most teams, but that can be subject to change due to teams often needing to reschedule lifts to accommodate the game or practice schedule of any given week, with practices and games taking priority.
When addressing the most challenging aspects of working in Strength and Conditioning at Conn, Pirla stated that “the amount of teams and athletes is tough, but that’s not to say that I can’t handle it. Take a team like Men’s Lacrosse, for example, where there are sixty guys on the roster. Some of the freshmen on that team I’m not able to see very often because of their class schedules, other team workouts, and the fact that there often just aren’t enough lift times to accommodate everyone… The math doesn’t always work out to where we can see everyone every week. We’re not like Tufts, for example, who have unlimited time and space to train, and our ratio of athletes to coaches can be challenging at times.”
Challenges aside, Pirla emphasized many of his favorite moments working with Camel athletes with visible excitement. “Most people think [my favorite moments would be] the Hockey team front squatting a lot of weight, it’s a great moment don’t get me wrong, but more of those best moments [for me] are when someone gets a personal best or does something for the first time that they never thought that they could do. For example, when somebody who couldn’t do a chin up does one, seeing the excitement, that moment is like ‘damn’ they did something they never thought they could do, that’s more of what really gets the heart jumping a little bit.”
When asked about some of his proudest moments at Conn, Pirla highlighted “the sailing team testing on back squat and bench press at the end of the season was awesome, to see a team progress the way they have, the amount of personal records, that was awesome to see… The Field Hockey team’s progression throughout the season was also awesome to see. I want to shout out the female teams in particular [for their work and progression], it’s been very impressive seeing them have the same and in many cases more intensity than the other teams. A lot of times female teams [are] regarded as not as strong or intense as male teams, and seeing them break that mold of being smaller and weaker and not as intense is very impressive and inspiring because they are athletes just like anybody else and they can show up and show out.”
Pirla also proudly notes the visible progress that he’s seen in the strength and conditioning of Conn’s athletes in the year that he’s been here. “We’re a smaller school, [we’re] not gonna have University of Alabama athletes, but that doesn’t mean there still can’t be progress…Team culture is changing, the small things that compound, that’s what I get excited over; being self-sufficient, that’s a win. Coaches that are getting excited to get their athletes in the weight room because they see tangible progress. Seeing [athletes] in the weight room more often, more excited to be in the weight room, to see technique improve, to see somebody come back from a major injury and be able to train normally, that’s a huge win.”
Pirla works with all sorts of different teams at Conn, and naturally those teams have different needs based on the demands of their sport. Pirla states that “the approach is always different based on the training needs and demands [of any given sport]. That’s where needs analysis is super important. Obviously sailing and hockey train differently. With a sport like sailing I have to think in terms of movement quality a lot… Sailors need to be strong in all sorts of ranges of motion – as do all sports, of course – but sailing in particular because you guys put your bodies in so many different positions. That’s something in particular that I need to focus on in your guys’ training. Hockey is a super physical sport in a different way, where you see a bunch of hip and shoulder injuries, so I give them more shoulder specific strength exercises because that’s what their sport demands.”
Pirla also highlights how he approaches different athletes differently. “You have to know that not everyone will respond the same way to the same thing… it’s situationally dependent… certain athletes, I can yell at them and tell them that a certain rep was shit and they’ll be totally fine. Others, they might shut down so I approach that differently to get a response out of them.”
Accountability and self sufficiency are major themes for Pirla. “So many people like to compare themselves to others. I do it all the time as a strength coach. I look at other coaches and see what they’re doing, and think ‘should i be doing that?’ At the end of the day, you have to hold yourself accountable for what you’re capable of. If somebody can front squat a certain amount of weight and they know that, why limit themselves?… Maximal strength can fluctuate up to thirty pounds daily, and some days you just can’t lift as much as other days. Everyone has bad days and slips on certain occasions, that’s okay. We’re human… if you can’t give it to me on the bench, give it to me on the back squat. If you can’t give it to me on the back squat, give it to me on chin ups, and so on. I want to give you guys useful lessons that you can take with you when you leave here. I want those lessons to help you in your future jobs, internships, relationships, difficult situations, and so on. I don’t want [Conn athletes] to remember me yelling at them to put more weight on their back squat, I want them to remember that when they wanted to quit or take weight off, that John told me that I could do it and believed in me.”
