Zach Reding is the MiLB Strength & Conditioning Coordinator for the Houston Astros. A former Division 1 baseball player, he has spent the past eight years with the Astros, coaching at every level through to the Major Leagues. He is a student with Setanta College.
Below, Zach discusses his path from player to coordinator, his current role across the Astros’ minor league system, and what studying with Setanta has added to his practice.
From Player to Coach
Zach’s interest in physical development grew directly out of his own playing career.
“I grew up playing baseball my entire life. I never was a player that stood out in any means, but I found the impact of physical development early in college. My on-field performance was dramatically impacted by strength development, and I ended up playing Division 1 baseball.
This extended into my professional interests, as I began my studies in Exercise Science. After my playing career, I continued down this path as a Graduate Assistant at Wichita State, where I was able to keep impacting players’ performance through a strength & conditioning lens.
I was fortunate enough to receive an opportunity with the Houston Astros, where I have been since graduating. I have climbed through the organisation, coaching at every level in the farm system, even landing in the MLB. The application of evidence-based training strategies continues to shape my training philosophies and provide beneficial adaptations for my current training population.”
The Coordinator Role
Today, Zach oversees strength and conditioning across every level of the Astros’ minor league system.
“I am currently the MiLB Strength & Conditioning Coordinator for the Houston Astros. In this role, I am responsible for developing and overseeing our training strategies for our population throughout all levels of the Minor Leagues. This includes energy system development, strength and power development, speed development, and workload management.
Another large component deals with how S&C can be integrated into the player development side — understanding each player’s limitations and how best to provide feedback for our field staff to promote higher-level performance, based on the constraints of each player’s kinetic and kinematic variables.
On a day-to-day basis, my job requires constant communication with our affiliate strength coaches regarding player development, in-season periodisation, workload monitoring and other special projects relating to physical development. It is our main role to identify flagged players through a number of objective variables to help ensure player health and readiness throughout the six-month season.”
Career Highlights
Eight years with one organisation has taken Zach from intern to the Major Leagues and back into a system-wide role.
“In my eight years with the Houston Astros, I went from an intern, to Major League Strength Coach, to MiLB Coordinator. I have fostered a relationship between player development and S&C that can identify performance variables through anatomical restrictions or output limitations, and integrated proactive shoulder training strategies to combat the rise in UCL and forearm injuries with young pitchers.
In 2022, I was part of the Houston Astros’ World Series run and assisted in post-season practice and game preparations.”
Why Setanta
Zach was drawn to the applied nature of the programme after hearing from others in the field.
“Before beginning with Setanta, I had heard from many others about the great impact the coursework could provide. Unlike many other master’s programmes, the applied aspect of integrating theory into real-life coaching opportunities helps improve the application of advanced theory.
I am hoping to continue to take the evidence-based, research-driven components established through Setanta into the rest of my career. I have learned a great amount regarding research papers and auditing different resources to ensure quality information is provided. I have also learned a lot from the applied statistical analysis in relation to sport science, which has been vastly beneficial considering how present this material is in our day to day.”
Applying the Learning
For Zach, the value of the programme lies in bridging the gap between the textbook and the training floor.
“The tasks and projects have been truly beneficial in helping ensure complete understanding of each module. The projects are very complex, but are structured in a way that can be applied tomorrow in your current field. The Research module really helped open my eyes to vet the articles I review, so I can separate noise from true evidence.
Reading textbooks is great, but they lack the middle ground of applying the knowledge learned into a real-life scenario. Setanta does a great job of connecting the dots and giving you the best opportunity to apply advanced training theory and evidence-based protocols to ensure continued progress within physical development.”
Looking Ahead
Zach hopes to broaden the reach of the S&C profession within player development.
“I hope to get to a point in my career where I can oversee an entire sports medicine and performance group for an organisation. I strongly believe in the impact S&C coaches have, not only within a player’s physical development, but also within practice construction, skill acquisition, workload monitoring and recruiting.
I would like to play a part in extending the reach of our profession across multiple departments and improving the overall effectiveness of player development through a physiological approach.”
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