Alumni Gazette

Strength and Conditioning

Sheehan (Photo: Courtesy Columbia University)

Tommy Sheehan ’90, the sure-handed receiver who thrilled Yellowjacket football fans during his years in Rochester, has found his professional niche among athletes yearning to get stronger and more agile.

At Columbia University, he’s director of strength and conditioning, working with students on 27 teams—from swimmers and football linemen to archers and long-distance runners. He also moonlights for elite competitors, conceiving workout programs for such diverse athletes as Mahesh Bhupathi, one of the world’s top doubles tennis players, and Montreal Canadiens hockey star Alexei Kovalev, who recently made a training DVD with Sheehan.

Sheehan employs a training system that incorporates resistance bands, those stretchy straps of rubber used for many years by physical therapists and now an important part of his strategy to boost performance.

Like traditional weight training, the bands build muscle through resistance. But bands don’t put stress on an athlete’s joints, which allows more work during a single session and shorter recovery periods between workouts. Sheehan detailed his training system in the March issue of Runner’s World.

“Football players love it because you do a band, and it lubricates the joint,” says Sheehan, who lives in Manhattan with his wife, Tricia. “Runners like the bands because they don’t stress the joints and compromise running. For Kovalev, the bands give him an edge—he’s looking for balance and stability, and a way to increase his power and speed.”

While Sheehan no longer competes himself, he stays in shape by working out three times a week and demonstrating the drills for his athletes.

“I train myself the way I train them,” he says.

Sheehan is on the forefront of the rapidly expanding field. Big-time football schools could have up to 10 strength coaches while professional teams are also hiring strength coaches to work with their high-priced players.

At the University, individual coaches serve that role for their players. So Sheehan, who still has strong links to Rochester, shares his strength program with former football coach Mark Kreydt ’88, one of Sheehan’s former teammates and fraternity brothers at Theta Delta Chi. He also works at Kreydt’s summer camp for high school players.

“Tommy’s doing things on the cutting edge,” says Kreydt. “I’ll call him to ask him what he thinks, to see if I’m thinking about things in the right way. He’s my guide for what’s the latest in the field.”

For Sheehan, keeping up means maintaining his network among strength coaches around the country who like to share what works. He talks often with Jim Malone ’89, who played against Sheehan during their high school years in Buffalo and who was later a Yellowjackets teammate. Malone, the strength coach for the San Diego Padres, says he’s now using the bands to supplement weight training for the baseball players under his purview.

“I knew that Tommy wasn’t a gimmick guy,” says Malone, also one of Sheehan’s fraternity brothers. “He’s very good with movement training, which helps athletes become more aware of their body mechanics and body control.”

Sheehan’s love for sports and movement brought him to Manhattan following graduation. At Columbia, he earned a master’s degree in physiology and applied nutrition while working as an assistant under former Rochester football coach Ray Tellier, who’d left the University during Sheehan’s junior year.

But after three years, Sheehan decided he wanted a change. His three brothers were police officers, and he felt a certain familial obligation to consider a career in public safety. He joined the New York State Police, but it wasn’t long before Sheehan realized he’d made the wrong career choice. So he headed back to Columbia, this time as assistant strength and conditioning coach.

“The police academy was great, but after 18 months on the job, I saw that everybody you meet is having the worst day of their lives,” says Sheehan. “I felt the stress that police work under and realized I really liked being around athletes and coaching them.”

It was the right move, and by 2001, he was named director of strength and conditioning at Columbia. It’s a demanding schedule—putting teams through the paces as early as 6 a.m. and not finishing some days until 7 p.m.

“I really enjoy working on this level,” says Sheehan. “It’s not like I’m getting Deion Sanders and saying, ‘I’m his speed coach.’ We get average athletes here, and you can really see them getting better.”

—David McKay Wilson