Dr. Mianfang Ruan

DR: Dr. Ruan, thank you for doing this interview. Could you please give us some background information about yourself and how you got to where you are now?

MR: I received a Ph.D. in Kinesiology from Louisiana State University in 2007. I also earned a Master’s degree in Sports Biomechanics from Shanghai University of Sport in 1998. I am currently a faculty member at Ningbo University, China.  I have worked for a sporting goods company in China, a sports research institute in China, a sports medicine institute, and a university in the U.S. I also participated in a high performance biomechanical analysis projects for elite athletes sponsored by the U.S. Track and Field team.

DR: I heard your talk at the Central Virginia Sports Performance Seminar. You talked extensively about the differences between the Chinese and American sports systems. What are some of these differences?
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Yosef Johnson is the owner of Ultimate Athlete Concepts, a Michigan based company dedicated to providing top quality information from the world’s leading coaches, scientists, and researchers.

UAC delivers the best resources for serious coaches and athletes

DR: It’s great to have you for this interview, Yosef. Please introduce yourself and give a bit about your background to the readers.

YJ: I was an athlete searching for ways to get better as a teenager. Most of what I found was very weak, but I kept looking. In my early 20′s, I came across Dr Yessis’ “Secrets of Soviet Sports Training”. I remembered the story about how he developed Todd Marinovich and was also very aware of the Soviet’s success. Upon reading the book, I began to try to contact him. After making contact, I could tell he was far more knowledgeable than anyone I had encountered. As my own athletic career was ending, I was still fascinated with the field and began to work as his apprentice

DR: You’ve been publishing literature from the former Soviet Union for many years now. Most strength coaches know about the “big name” scientists from the USSR, such as Dr. Verkhoshansky, Dr. Issurin, and Dr. Bondarchuk. Who are some of the lesser known, but still highly influential, coaches to come out of the Eastern bloc countries?
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In the coming weeks we will release the line up for the 2012 Central Virginia Sport Performance Seminar.  The first to be announced is Mike Robertson.  Mike currently operates IFAST, a sport performance facility in Indianapolis, Indiana.  Although he has become known as a “corrective exercise guru,” Mike’s knowledge of preparing athletes is top notch and we are very excited to have him on the docket in 2012.

DR: Mike, thanks for taking the time to do this interview, I know you’re very busy these days. What’s new over at IFAST?

MR: Yeah it’s crazy right now! We’re actually in the process of expanding – going from 2,250 square feet to almost 4,700 square feet, so lots in the works!

When it’s all said and done we’re going to have one half that’s geared towards our semi-private, small group group, and the other side will be all turfed out and geared towards bootcamps and speed and agility training for our young athletes.

DR: You’ve gotten a reputation as being a mobility/rehabilitation guy. But most people aren’t aware that you’re actually an accomplished powerlifter. Has your training shifted away from powerlifting into something entirely different?

MR: Actually, it’s quite the opposite!

I started off as an athlete, and moved into powerlifting as my athletic career was wrapping up. I competed for 5 years and loved every minute of it.

When I moved down to Indianapolis, I took a job where I was doing in home personal training and it just took an inordinate amount of my time. I really just didn’t have the time or energy to compete.

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Coach J working with an athlete

DR: J, you’ve been the driving force behind the CVASPS. Tell us, how did this first come to be started?

JD: A few years back I got the idea to start basketball specific seminar and started researching.  I sent an email to every strength coach in the country to see if there was interest and got quite a few responses.  One response I received was from Charles Stevenson, who was at NC State at the time, and he was already setting it up.  Well my boss at the time was Brandon Hourigan, and he basically called me out on it, and said that I needed to put that much time into our seminar.  That was the push that I needed to start building this into what it is today.  I looked around for things that would benefit me and my staff and people who were the “experts” in that particular realm of our field.  That led me to Yosef Johnson and UAC who have helped tremendously with the seminar and reached out people that we feel are the top coaches in the business and brought them in.  From here we are just looking to improve and make this thing better, with better information, better speakers, and a better format.

DR: You’ve worked very hard to build this conference into one of the best seminars around. Where do you see the future, or more specifically, who would you like to see presenting at cvasps in the next few years?

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