This fall, Ryan Capretta begins his fifth season as the strength and conditioning coach for the Pepperdine University men’s and women’s basketball teams. Capretta, 34, spends four to five days per week in the off-season (May through September) and three to four days per week during the regular season (October through March) training the Waves’ athletes. Capretta focuses on strength, speed, quickness, agility and power as part of a rigorous strength and conditioning program.
A native of Agoura Hills and graduate of Agoura High School in 1995, Capretta earned his bachelor’s degree in exercise science with a minor in business administration from Indiana State in 1999. He is professionally certified by the National Strength and Conditioning Association and has a master’s of sports science from the United States Sports Academy.
In addition to his work with Pepperdine, Capretta has seven years of professional experience, including stints in the NFL with the Arizona Cardinals and Super Bowl-winning Baltimore Ravens, as well as working at Stanford University.
In 2005, Capretta founded Proactive Sports Performance in Westlake Village. Proactive Sports Performance specializes in performance training and rehabilitative services and offers individualized programs for different athletes. Capretta and his staff work with professional, collegiate, high school and youth athletes.
Professional clients of Proactive Sports Performance include 2011 Super Bowl champion Clay Matthews, pro bowlers Antonio Cromartie, Terrell Suggs, Keith Bulluck and Dwight Freeney. Other NFL clients include Jimmy Clausen, Taylor Mays, Casey Matthews and Brian Cushing, to name a few.
This week Capretta is one of five sports performance trainers venturing to the headquarters of ADIDAS in Herzogenaurach, Germany. During a five-day summit from October 8th through October 12th, Capretta will serve as a member on the ADIDAS strength and performance advisory board.
The Malibu Times caught up with Capretta at his new facility in Westlake Village to discuss his time at Pepperdine, as well as managing his own business.
Talk about your job at Pepperdine and the excitement of collegiate athletics.
I love being able to own my own business and work with athletes on the private side, but also be involved with a school like Pepperdine. It’s a different feeling when you are working with a team. As a strength coach, part of the job that I enjoy is seeing how the team meshes in the off-season.
I enjoy working with the men’s and women’s teams. They have different personalities within each team and it’s just a blast for me. There is a lot of pride at Pepperdine. Both head coaches, men’s coach Marty Wilson and women’s coach Julie Rousseau, are passionate and I draw a lot of energy from them. Athletic Director Steve Potts is very supportive of what we do. The players on each team understand how important strength and conditioning is. The passion and pride in the programs is great for me because it makes my job easier.
Share your philosophy and vision with Proactive Sports Performance.
We have teamed up with Herbalife and will be having the Herbalife Sports Performance Lab. ADIDAS is also a sponsor of our new state-of-the-art facility. It gives us a lot of unique tools to test athletes. From that testing we design a specific program that meets their needs. Training has evolved over the years. We try to determine the athlete’s weaknesses and strengths and we try to attack those weaknesses. That allows us to make the workouts more efficient and in turn you see the results on the field or court.
Our testing equipment and new technology are really top-notch stuff. Utilizing exerbotics strength machines, we can take every single rep and look at the force production and strength curve, and not worry just about how much weight a person can lift. It creates a more efficient workout for the athletes.
How important are the relationships you have with your clientele at Proactive Sports Performance?
We build relationships with the athletes so over time they really trust us. This is very important to us. Then the nuts and bolts of the actual workout are very unique. We want the athletes when they leave here feeling healthy and not beat up from the weight room. The idea is that we strengthen the right muscle groups and the right type of movements biomechanically that they need to be doing.
The professional and collegiate athletes are seasonal. The high school athletes are here all the time. Our main part of our population is the high school athletes. It’s fun to have the young guys see the pros working and see how hard they work. It’s a motivating factor in itself.
What is an important piece of advice you can share with an athlete?
We always talk about consistency and intensity. Whether it’s a 12-year-old basketball player or if it’s Clay Matthews or Dwight Freeney, we are always preaching that you have to be consistent and you have to be intense with what you do. Consistency is giving a 100% effort on a day-to-day basis. Intensity is how you react in an uncomfortable setting such as being fatigued and fighting through it.