Olympic Strength & Conditioning coaches interviewed Episode 22: Jorden Bres 'I see myself as an employee of the athlete, my job is to get...'

Olympic Strength & Conditioning Coach Jorden Bres has made an incredible career from a a sport instructor to working with high-performance athletes, including Olympic Champions and World Champions.

Jorden made a decision to invest his own resources . into his education to become a Strength & Conditioning Coach. Jorden not only shares his top tips and pieces of advices, but also

·      How he got into strength and conditioning

·      His darkest moment

·      His best moment

·      The advice he would give his younger self 4

·      His advice to young aspiring S&C coaches

·      His coaching philosophy

·      His core values as a coach

·      The person that has influenced him the most and why 8

·      How to convince your athletes

·      How to deal with decisions you don’t agree with

·      A typical day in the life of an S&C coach

·      How to design a training program 12

·      Who he nominates to be interviewed

https://christianbosse.com/jorden-bres-interview/

Intro: This interview feature one of my colleagues, Jorden Bres. Jorden is a strength and conditioning (S & C) coach, who over the years made a successful transition from working as a junior S&C coach supporting youth athletes to working with very high-level athletes. Jorden provided strength & conditioning support to Epke Zonderland, Olympic Champion 2012, and who dominated the sport of gymnastics for literally two to three years, winning the World Championship, Olympic Games and the European Championships. Jorden has also worked with Olympic medalists in speed skating, World Champions in Judo and is a successful trainer of personal trainers, where he brings principles of strength and conditioning into personal training.

Welcome Jorden.

Jorden: Thank you. Nice to finally be here.

Jorden’s way into Strength & Conditioning

Christian: Jorden, how did you get into strength and conditioning?

Jorden: It’s now a long time ago, but I did judo myself and besides that, I did a lot of strength training myself, just because I liked it. At that time, I read all the Muscle & Fitness magazines from the 80's and the 90's. I copied all the programs, got injured and I learned from that.

I read all the Muscle & Fitness magazines from the 80's and the 90's. I copied all the programs, got injured and I learned from that.

 Up until now, I still like strength training, it gives me a lot of motivation, and relaxation. When I quit Judo due to an injury, I was thinking that I wanted to do more in the field of strength training, strength and conditioning, or whatever you want to call it. I have always had contact with high-level athletes, some of which are friends of mine now or some are people I trained with. I’ve always liked the dedication of high-performance athletes, the motivation and the drive and the perseverance.

Jorden’s darkest moment

Christian: So as an S&C coach what was your darkest moment?

Jorden: That's still a little bit hard to talk about. If you know what it takes for an athlete and how long it takes for this one moment of fame; talking about one moment, my darkest moment was at Rio Olympics 2016.

If you know what it takes for an athlete and how long it takes for this one moment of fame, …

After Epke’s [Zonderland] success at the London Olympic Games, he got two times World Champion and European Champion, a lot of success, and then towards Rio he had a lot of injuries, real bad injuries. And after all these injuries, in the last two months, he got fit again and all seemed all really good. And then 1 hour and a half before the Olympic final, he got injured again in the warming up. However, he started in the final, and all seemed to be good, but then he fell off the bar. That moment was a dark moment, one of the darkest moments, because I think he was capable to get a medal again.

All seemed to be good, but then he fell off the bar. That moment was a dark moment, one of the darkest moments.

Especially for him, I felt so sad. And to be honest, I had some tears in my eyes, when I was watching it. Especially for him, working so hard for 4 years. And that was similar with a few athletes for the Judo squad, Henk Grol, Dex Elmont, Kim Polling. We had hoped for a few medals for them, and then it didn’t happen. So yes, thinking about the darkest moments, those were the darkest moments.

Christian: Yes, I can relate to that. At the Rio Olympics some of my athletes did really well, but some of them performed below expectations, and especially below their own expectations. They went there to medal, and they ended up not doing it. That was tough to see.

Also, leading up to the Rio Olympic Games, some athletes didn't qualify. They worked so hard for it and they didn't qualify at the last minute. It’s tough for the coach to see.

Jorden: Yes, it's really tough, really tough moments.

Jorden’s best moment

Christian: Well, what's your best moment?

Jorden: My best moment by far the was Epke’s gold medal at the London Olympics 2012. It became really famous what he did over there, because he did something that has never been done before in Gymnastics. He took the risk, and he did it. I get goose bumps, just talking about it. That was one of the most beautiful moments that I had. And I had cried again, but this time out of joy.

It became really famous what he did over there, because he did something that has never been done before in Gymnastics. He took the risk, and he did it.

And besides his Olympic success, when he became a World Champion for the first time in 2013. Another beautiful moment was with Margot Boer, one of the speed-skaters, when she got the bronze medal in the 500m and 1000m races. But besides that, when an athlete gets the success he or she wants, that are always good moments. That's what you're working for, that's what you're doing it for.

Check out the full interview