Richard C. Lansky, CSCS, ACSM HFI, USA Weightlifting U.S. Int'l Coach
Owner/President and Director of Athletic Performance
As President and Director of Optimum Performance Training, Inc. at the O.P.T.I. Sports & Fitness Clinic, Rich is the driving force behind the company and its success over the past two decades.
A Syracuse University graduate, he has worked in the sports performance and strength and conditioning fields for 20 years. He is an NSCA Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist as well as an ACSM Certified Health/Fitness Instructor.
He is heavily involved in the Olympic Sport of Weightlifting, having served at both the state and national level. He held the office of the President of the Florida Local Weightlifting Committee since 1999, before deciding to step down in December of 2008 to focus more on his athletes and NFL Draft Prep Program. He also served on the USA Weightlifting Board of Directors for USA Weightlifting from 2004-2008.
Rich also served as the Board Liason and Coordinator for the USA Weightlifting Coaching Committee during that time span. In addition, he coordinates and teaches the Club Coach, Sports Performance Coach and Senior Coach Educational Clinics throughout the Southeast USA.
Rich is certified as a U.S. International Coach by USA Weightlifting and has served as Assistant Coach for the Men's Jr. World Team in 2003 and 2004, and as Assistant Coach for the Women's Jr. World Team in 2004. He was the Assistant Coach for the 2002 Men's Team at the Pan American Championships in Venezuela. In 2004, he was the head coach for the National Squad that competed at the Mermet Cup (USA vs. Australia) in Melbourne, Australia. In 2007, he served as the head women's coach for Team USA at the World University Cup in Peru.
Rich also served as Team Leader for the Jr. Pan American and 16 and Under International Teams in Puerto Rico in 2003 and 2005. He is also a USAW National Referee.
As a personal coach, he directs the training of over 50 athletes on a daily basis, both at the OPTI Sports and Fitness Clinic and at the Team Florida Gulfcoast Weightlifting Training Hall. He has personally coached four national champions, four American Open Champions, two National Collegiate Champions, two National Schoolage Champions, three Junior Olympic Champions, and one Pan American Champion. One of his athletes has set multiple Jr. American Records and two more have established Collegiate American Records. Five of his athletes have earned spots on either the USOTC Resident Squad or USOETC resident squad.
Internationally, he has personally helped develop and coach his athletes as they represented the USA at the Junior Worlds, NACACI Championships, the Pan American Championships, the Jr. Pan American Championships, the School age Pan American Championships, the World University Games, the Mermet Cup, the Criollo Cup, the Mexican Olympic Festival, the Pan American Games, and the Senior Worlds. His coaching travels have taken him to Bulgaria, Belarus, Quatar, Peru, Venezuela, Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Santo Domingo, Puerto Rico, and Australia.
As the head coach and executive director of operations for the former national powerhouse club, Team Florida weightlifting, his squads have won team titles at the Nationals, the National Juniors, National 23 and Under Championships, National Schoolage Championships and the American Open.
In 2007, he re-organized and started the Team Florida Gulfcoast Weightlifting Club, a not for profit sports and lifestyle education club dedicated to using the drug-free Olympic sport of Weightlifting, as a vehicle to improve the physical, social and psychological well-being of Florida's Gulfcoast area youth and young adults. In this way, he is able to provide support services and international level coaching and sport development services to the local youth.
In addition to coaching weightlifting, he has worked with hundreds of high school and collegiate athletes to become more explosive, stronger and faster for the sports of football, baseball, soccer, track and field, tennis, wrestling, volleyball, rowing/crew, sailing, and equestrian. He served as a strength and conditioning coach for Booker High School Football, Weightlifting and Wrestling in the early 90s, as a conditioning coach for Venice High School Wrestling in the mid 90s, and as a Speed Coach for Cardinal Mooney High School Soccer, Celsius Tennis Academy and Bradenton Christian Football during the past few years.
He also worked as the Strength and Speed Development Coach for Cardinal Mooney High School Soccer, Celsius Tennis Academy, Suncoast Spartan Soccer, Bradenton Christian Football and Baseball as well as the Eckerd College Rugby Team during the past few years.
At the elite level, he works with professional football, baseball, tennis and soccer athletes during their off seasons.
His NFL Combine and Pro Day Preparation programs are considered to be state of the art in terms of enhancing participants' abilities to produce explosive force, power and speed while preparing them for the specific drills and tests that they will experience at their pro day, senior bowl, and combine. Over the past few years, his athletes have experienced average increases of 4-6" in the vertical jump, and 12" in the long jump; they have also dropped anywhere from 2/10 to 4/10 of a second off of the pro agility, three cone, and forty-yard sprint tests. (www.sportsperformance.com)
In addition to his hands-on work with athletes, Rich spends a great deal of time as an educator to those in the weightlifting, strength and conditioning and personal training fields. He has been called upon to present at the 1997, 1998 and 2000 NSCA National Conference. In addition he has lectured and taught at the NSCA State Clinic Level, the American Fitness Professionals Association, and the School Boards of various counties in the state of Florida. Rich has taught certification courses for Florida Special Olympics Powerlifting, the American College of Sports Medicine and USA Weightlifting.
He has been been published in The Journal of Strength and Conditioning, Training and Conditioning Magazine, Purepower Magazine, Weightlifting USA Magazine, American Fitness Quarterly, City Tempo, and Medi-Scene. Together with Sharol Cripe, RD and D.R. McLaughlin, he authored the Fitness Expert Activity and Nutrition Guides.
Rich has also produced two successful videos, Strength and Conditioning for Wrestling and Optimum Power Training Innovations. He also helped develop the educational curriculum and manual and DVD materials for the AGILITY TRAINING INSTITUTE's Speed and Agility Coach/Trainer certification.
In the early 90's, Rich has also hosted a "conditioning tip of the week" on local television and radio.
In 1997, Rich was awarded Coach of the Year honors by both Sarasota County Special Olympics and Florida Special Olympics. In 1998, he was awarded the Good Heart award for community service in Sarasota, Florida. He received multiple awards over the years from the Florida Local Weightlifting Committee for Coach of the Year from 2002-2006. In 2007, he was named the USOC Doc Counsilman Coach of the Year Winner for USA Weightlifting based on his ability to use sports science in the training of athletes.
Rich believes that a strong background of academic preparation and research and education are essential to the development of a quality coach. He also believes that a sports background can also be an invaluable aid when trying to related concepts and training theory to his athletes. As such, Rich is a firm believer that a coach should be able to demonstrate proper technique as a teaching aid when coaching.
A history of competitive activity, while not essential, can help to establish a "connection" to the athletes on a team or during one to one training. When an athlete understands that his or her coach has experienced similar levels of stress, anxiety, physical and mental fatigue as well as the "ups and downs" of competition that they themselves experience, it can create a very positive coaching and athlete relationship.
A former competitive strength athlete and lifter himself, Rich's accomplishments include a national championship in the middleweight class at the 1992 APA Nationals, best lifter honors at the 1993 APA Drug-Free Dead Lift Nationals, and the overall novice title in the 1989 Sunset Classic Bodybuilding Championships. From 1991-1993, he was ranked in the top 50 American Powerlifters in the Squat, and top 100 lifters in the Dead Lift and Total by both Powerlifting USA Magazine, APA and the ADFPA. His APA Drug –Tested Florida State Records in the Squat, Dead Lift and Total stood for over ten years after they were originally established.
For his fortieth birthday, Coach Lansky put on the singlet for the first time in 13 years and competed RAW (no gear, no belt, no wraps) at the 2006 Frank Kyosto Central Florida Powerlifting Championships, earning first place in the open 181 class. He has continued to compete in this fashion, working to bring his lifts back up to the level they were at prior to his retirement in 1993. In 2007, he earned a third place finish in the open division at the Tony Conyer's Push-Pull extravaganza. In 2008, he won his class and best lifter honors while setting open division class 1 records in the WABDL Florida State Championships.
On the academic side, Coach Lansky is currently working on a training and athletic development book geared especially for the developing youth athlete. The book should be completed by the end of 2009.
To contact Coach Rich Lansky, click here.
Heather Norris
BS, Exercise Science
Facility Director
Heather graduated Lake Sumter Community College with an Associate’s Degree in Sports and Fitness and then graduated Warner University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Exercise Science.
She has played fast pitch softball throughout high school and college and was an Academic All American. She played fast pitch softball travel ball for numerous teams as an infielder and outfielder. She is working towards her CSCS and USAW certifications.
Breanne Oddo
BS, Sports Performance Coach
Breanne is a graduate from the University of South Florida with her bachelor’s in Exercise Science. She has played many sports in her athletic career, but Olympic-style weightlifting was her main focus. Breanne has competed with Team Florida Gulfcoast Weightlifting Club, which is coached by Rich Lansky, on the national and local levels. Along with coaching classes here at the facility she is also the head coach of Velocity’s Boot Camp workouts.
ADJUNCT STAFF
Matthew Oberly
BS, USA Weightlifting Certified Sports Performance Coach
Strength and Conditioning Specialist
Matthew Oberly, a native of Sarasota, graduated from the University of Florida with a degree in Applied Physiology and Kinesiology in May 2007. There he interned with the Strength and Conditioning department during the 2007 spring semester. During the internship, he worked with football, volleyball, baseball, softball, track & field, swimming & diving, and soccer. After graduation he moved back to Sarasota and interned at O.P.T.I. during the summer of 2007. Matt is a certified Sports Performance Coach through USAW and is also CPR/First Aid certified through the American Red Cross. In his free time, Matt plays competitive beach volleyball and competes in tournaments throughout the summertime.
Dr. John A. Prokopiak, BS, DC, ART Certified
PROHealth Chiropractic
Dr. "John Pro" treats soft tissue, spinal, extremity, occupational and sports injuries using chiropractic neurology methods, physical therapy modalities and Active Release Techniques (ART) to help individuals achieve their performance goals.
Active Release Techniques (ART) is a protocol specific technique for the correction of muscle and nerve myofascial adhesions. They are non-surgical, non-invasive tactile dependent soft tissue treatments of low visit frequency. ART was developed by Dr. Mike Leahy, DC, CCCP, of Colorado Springs, CO.
John graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, MD with a B.S. in Management in 1984. He earned his Doctor of Chiropractic and B.S. in Anatomy from Parker College of Chiropractic in Dallas, TX.
Dr. "John Pro" is an avid golfer and sponsor of the Southwest Chapter-North Florida Section Professional Golfers' Association. He works closely with area PGA Teaching Professionals to evaluate, treat and rehab golfers.
Regina Ely, BS, RD, LDN
Registered Dietitian
Regina is a Registered Dietitian with a degree in Dietetics from University of Florida. She recently returned to a consulting position with OPTI Sports and Fitness following her work in the Northeast.
Regina was part of OPTI's original clinical staff from the early 90's. She specializes in the nutritional counseling and intervention of both athletes and general population, including weight loss, body composition alterations and lifestyle change.
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