VertiMax Case Study - Marquette University

1. CASE STUDY
MARQUETTE UNIVERSITY
Stu Roche
| STRENGTH AND CONDITIONING |

2. CASE STUDY
MARQUETTE UNIVERSITY | STRENGTH AND CONDITIONING
Stu Roche is in his fifth year as the
Assistant Director of Sports
Performance at Marquette University.
Roche’s primary focus is with the
men’s and women’s lacrosse teams as
well as the men’s and women’s tennis
teams.
Stu is also part of the staff lead by
Head Strength and Conditioning
Coach and Master S & C Coach
(CSCCa), Todd Smith.
The ultimate goal of our programming
is to transfer training outcomes from
the weight room to the sporting
environment. In designing the weight
room in Marquette’s new Athletic and
Human Performance Research Center,
we prioritized this philosophy and
logically wanted to invest in equipment
that helped bolster these training
outcomes. The rack-mounted Raptors
stood out to us as being a tool that
would allow us to develop more robust
athletic movement competencies
particularly in regard to acceleration,
deceleration and change of direction.
WHY VERTIMAX?
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3. CASE STUDY
MARQUETTE UNIVERSITY | STRENGTH AND CONDITIONING
RACK-MOUNTED RAPTORS
Much of the training focus at
Marquette centers around ground-
based triple extension and flexion
movements.
These training philosophies were
taken into account when designing
the layout and functionality of the
performance center.
Like any well put together training
facility, each individual piece of
equipment has a purpose.
The Raptors have been a great
evolution to our training space, they
have naturally provided a conduit
between more constrained movements
at the rack and less constrained
athletic movements on the turf.
Outside of harnessing the athlete at
the hip for accelerations, decelerations
and change of direction tasks, we have
experimented with symmetrical and
asymmetrical attachment points at the
shoulder, hip, knee and ankle to
address rotation, anti-rotation and
trans-axial stability. It’s rare that we
have a session where the Raptors are
not programmed in some way shape
or form.
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4. CASE STUDY
MARQUETTE UNIVERSITY | STRENGTH AND CONDITIONING
Introducing VertiMax equipment
has helped the staff at MU in
creating a productive training
environment.
The resistance provided by the
Raptor systems teach athletes
about positive angles in
acceleration and about controlling
their center of mass in change of
direction.
ATHLETE RESPONSE
Strategically pairing these
movements with their
unresisted counterparts has
helped athletes improve athletic
competencies tremendously.
The athlete’s feedback
regarding the Raptors have
been very positive. It’s clear to
see that their intent of
movement is high and that they
enjoy the movements that are
programmed using the Raptors,
particularly those that allow
them to display their
athleticism in space.
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