Fans may notice him when timeout is called during a game. As the Stanford women’s basketball team clusters around the coaches, he’s the young man in the suit and tie standing quietly on the perimeter.
Fans who arrive an hour early, just when the Maples doors open, will see him wearing more casual attire as he gets the players ready for action through a series of stretches and warm-up exercises.
He’s Devan McConnell, the team’s sports performance coach, a.k.a. intercollegiate athletic development specialist. His overriding goals are to prevent injuries and improve performance. He works toward these goals by helping the players get into and stay in tiptop physical condition. “Poor movement patterns increase the chance of injury,” he said during an interview in the 2-year-old Arrillaga Gymnasium and Weight Room.
Consequently, he puts each player through a series of movement tests when she arrives on campus in the fall and periodically thereafter. Those tests include a body weight lunge, one-leg stand, core stability, shoulder mobility and hamstring flexibility. He then works with individual players to correct any problem that might have shown up.
Center Sarah Boothe, who missed all of last season while rehabbing from foot surgery, gave kudos to Devan during the press conference following the Texas game on Nov. 28. “He really helped me get a lot stronger,” the red-shirt sophomore said.
The players spend about two hours a day with him in the weight room. “We use all the tools available to us in the weight room, from the various weighted implements (barbells, dumbbells, kettlebells, etc.) to foam rolls, medicine balls, turf space, Keiser functional equipment,” he wrote in a subsequent e-mail. “Any tool which will help in the athletic development of the athletes will be utilized if and when appropriate,” he wrote.
He supervises them in the use of weights, stressing that technique is more important than the amount of weight. Any work he does with injured players is determined by the medical staff.
“Running becomes part of the conditioning plan during the second half of the summer and into the preseason,” he wrote. If the players need more conditioning during the season, he usually has them riding the exercise bikes instead of running, which involves more pounding.
Another part of his job is to urge the players to eat healthful foods, “to make wise choices,” he said in the interview. They should “know what they’re putting in their bodies and how it affects them. Real food is a big key.”
He stresses pre- and post-workout nutrition to fuel the body and help it recover. The players have a meal about an hour before a workout or practice. Then it’s important for them to refuel with carbohydrates and protein within 30 minutes after the session. That’s why chocolate milk is available in the locker room, but “the timing is more important to optimize the recovery process.” Some players might have a snack such as a bagel or energy bar at halftime.
On game days, the team eats together before the game. He might help a few players stretch after the meal. Warm-ups start about 75 minutes before the game. It’s a set routine involving dynamic flexibility through various exercises and the use of exercise bands.
After the game, “usually the players will do some basic foam rolling and stretching,” he said in an e-mail. However, during the first half of the season, “due to the random scheduling,” the players sometimes go through what he called “a full lift.” That post-game session “is the only time which allows us to stay on or close to our ideal training schedule and to take advantage of the players being warmed up. (It) gives us more recovery time than if we had waited until the next morning to work out,” he wrote.
If the team is on the road, the players dine together after the game.
Besides nutrition and conditioning, Devan preaches the value of rest as a way to recover and regenerate. He doesn’t get too concerned about a player’s weight. “There’s no ideal weight,” he said. “We’re concerned about how they play,” not what they weigh.
He’s in constant contact with the coaches, who might ask him to work with a player on the movements involved in a particular aspect of the game, such as defense. Basketball skills themselves are the coaches’ arena. “I try to increase (the players’) athleticism, speed and power,” he said.
Now in his third year of his year-round job at Stanford, Devan also works with the men’s and women’s volleyball teams.
“Conditioning for the two sports is more the same than different,” he wrote in the e-mail. “What will change slightly are the work-rest ratios, as these are generally different between the two sports. Basically, during conditioning I am concerned with the physiological response and adaptation of the different energy systems driving the body, not necessarily the sport specificity of movements.”
Devan grew up in Seattle and attended Fitchburg State College (near Boston) on an ice hockey scholarship. After graduating with a degree in exercise science in 2008, he worked for Mike Boyle Strength and Conditioning in Boston, considered one of the best in the nation. He also did some work with the San Jose Sharks and Anaheim Ducks. He holds several professional certifications, including Performance Enhancement Specialist.
In a Sept. 27 article, Recovery for Basketball, which he wrote for Boston Sports Medicine and Performance Group, Devan went into more detail about how he helps players during the year. Besides the techniques he discussed during the interview, they include hydrotherapy, self-myofascial release, lower body elevation and breath work, cobblestone mat walks, yoga, and flush rides on the bikes after games.
Asked about one of the biggest banes of women’s basketball – ACL injuries – he said, “I’m always looking for new research and breakthroughs.” So far, no one has come up with a foolproof prevention, but Devan knows that improving the way a player moves can help to prevent injuries.
As for his overriding goal this year, beyond preventing injuries and improving performance, he had just three words – “the national championship.”
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