Kentucky MBB embracing Brady Welsh's strength and conditioning style

The Kentucky men’s basketball injury issues from a season ago are well-documented. Nagging lower leg injuries, back problems, and even a concussion set back the Wildcats down the final stretch. A lot of injuries are flukes — there isn’t much an ankle can do when it lands sideways on another player’s foot. But Kentucky experienced a flurry of injuries in 2021-22 that always seemed to happen at the most inopportune times.

With Brady Welsh, the program’s new strength and conditioning coach, taking over the position in May, the hope is Kentucky doesn’t meet a similar fate in ’22-23.

Welsh, who is just 29 years old, has introduced a wave of technology inside the Wildcats’ weight room. The goal doesn’t appear to be who can lift the most and do it for the most reps, but rather making sure each player is doing what their body is capable of while learning what it needs and doesn’t need along the way. Technology isn’t the end-all-be-all for Welsh, but it helps open up entirely new thought processes when assessing a player’s body.

The Athletic’s Kyle Tucker recently did a deep-dive on Welsh and what the new strength and conditioning coach hopes to accomplish at Kentucky. Tucker details how Welsh is focusing on injury prevention and management, and how the new technology is helping identify potential problems ahead of time. From the player’s perspective, they’ve already noticed significant differences in their weight lifting routines from a year ago compared to this summer.

“Rob (Harris), our old strength coach, and Brady are two different people so there’s obviously going to be differences but both are great strength and conditioning coaches,” Kentucky senior forward Jacob Toppin told the media on Thursday. “Brady has been very good for us, he’s gotten us stronger, he’s gotten us bigger in ways that we need to. He’s definitely been helpful for this program so far.”

“He’s awesome. I have a great relationship with him,” Kentucky redshirt senior guard CJ Fredrick said on Thursday. “I think one of the great things about him is he’s just super personable. He always has a smile on his face, laughing with us, and he’s really big on the technology side. He’s brought in some new things that for a guy like me who’s had a decent amount of injuries, it’s good for me to be able to see the way my body’s working and see one day maybe I’m not working as hard, or maybe I’m a little sore — it’s just good for me to see that kinda stuff. But he’s really good, I like him a lot.”

Injury prevention has been the buzzword topic this week around the Kentucky fanbase. Looking back at last season’s end result, it’s understandable why (and it’s also the middle of the summer). But in reality, how much of a difference can the strength and conditioning coach have on a top-tier program like UK?

If you ask the players, they would tell you the impact has been noticeable.

In Tucker’s article, force plates are the first piece of technology mentioned. It’s essentially a device that Welsh and the players use daily to help detail how their bodies are responding. The players jump on these plates, which spit out data on the force generated from the jump. It can be an incredibly useful tool when it comes to identifying injuries before they can even occur.

When I asked both Toppin and Fredrick during Thursday’s media opportunity which piece of technology Welsh has introduced stuck out to them the most, they both responded quickly with the force plates.

“We use the force plates a lot,” Toppin added. “Which tells us a lot of things when we’re jumping on it, if we’re using one side more than the other so it helps with preventing injury. And if we’re using one side more than the other, what we gotta do is strengthen that one side. So (Welsh is) definitely using the technology that he has to help benefit us so it’s definitely good for us.”

“For me, it’s probably the force plates,” Fredrick said. “Every day we get in there, you just jump at your max peak that you can and it just looks at every little thing in your body. What muscles are working, what muscles aren’t working, so for me, it’s really good to see: is my left hamstring firing today, and what’s it firing at? Is it at its peak? Am I good today? Do I need to do a little more? So that’s probably my favorite thing just because it’s gonna help me the most.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Brady Welsh (@bradenwelsh)

We’ve already learned this offseason of Daimion Collins’ dedication to the gym and his diet along with Lance Ware’s desire to add 10-15 pounds in the weight room. What happens during these summer months can be critical in a player’s on-court development for the upcoming season. Welsh was the one who oversaw the many leaps from former Purdue star Jaden Ivey, who was recently taken No. 5 overall in the 2022 NBA Draft by the Detroit Pistons.

Welsh is trying to bring that same impact to Kentucky. And if anyone on the Wildcats roster can boost his draft stock the most with a productive offseason, it would be Toppin. Strength and conditioning is an underlying factor in making that all happen.

“It’s helped me a lot because one thing for me, my hips aren’t that good so I can’t bend, I can’t squat,” Toppin said of Welsh’s early influence. “So he’s been showing me different things that I need to do, he’s been helping me strengthen certain muscles and do certain things to help me bend more so I can be more efficient on the court.”