Emma D.

I have been a strength and conditioning coach for about two years, working with athletes at nearly every level of development—from 5th grade through middle school, high school, prep school, collegiate, and even professional. At Bando Performance, I’ve had the opportunity to train athletes across a wide variety of sports, helping them improve their speed, strength, power, and overall athletic performance. In addition to my private-sector work, I completed a Division I internship at Boston University, where I worked closely with both the men’s and women’s ice hockey teams. Currently, I serve as the Director of Performance at Austin Preparatory High School through Bando Performance and also work as the strength coach for Woburn High School’s hockey and football programs. While I have experience coaching all ages, I primarily focus on training high school and collegiate athletes from a range of sports.

In high school, I was a multi-sport athlete, competing in both soccer and lacrosse. Playing two different sports taught me the value of versatility, hard work, and teamwork, all of which shaped who I am as both an athlete and a coach. While I chose not to continue competing in college, I knew I wanted to stay involved in athletics in a meaningful way. Instead of pursuing sports at the collegiate level, I focused on my education and earned my Bachelor’s degree in Exercise Science, which allowed me to turn my passion for athletics into a career. Through strength and conditioning, I’ve been able to stay connected to the world of sports, working with athletes at every level and helping them achieve their own goals. Coaching has become my way of giving back to the athletic community that shaped me.

A typical session with me is designed to be both structured and athlete-specific, with each part of training building on the next. We always begin with stretching and a dynamic warm-up to get the body moving properly, increase mobility, and prepare the athlete for more intense work. From there, we move into speed development, which may include sprints using our 1080 Sprint technology or timing gates to track and improve acceleration, mechanics, and top-end speed.

After speed work, we progress into plyometric training, where athletes perform med ball variations, hurdle drills, box jumps, depth drops, and other explosive jumps and hops to build power and coordination. We then move into strength training, focusing on full-body workouts every session to maximize overall performance and long-term results. Finally, we finish with accessory work tailored to each athlete’s needs, along with conditioning to prepare them for game-day demands.