One Convention. Every Coach.
Dr. Pat Ivey has spent more than two decades inside college athletics, from the weight rooms of major football programs to the CSCCA board. He has seen the profession change, and he has seen what has not changed fast enough. When the latest CTE research landed, he did not read it the way a reporter reads it. He read it as a coach who has spent his career responsible for other people’s sons and daughters.
That is what this conversation is about. Pat and Iron Neck founder Mike Jolly sat down to talk through what the research actually says: that risk builds across all years of play, not just the professional ones, and that the window to protect an athlete opens long before they ever reach a college roster.
Pat’s challenge to his peers is direct. Whatever is holding you back from taking neck strength seriously, whether that ends up being Iron Neck or anything else, get over that hump. Your athletes cannot afford for you to wait.
That challenge is bigger than one conversation and bigger than football. The responsibility Pat describes belongs to every coach in every sport where athletes collide, accelerate, or absorb force. Hockey. Soccer. Wrestling. Lacrosse. Rugby. The neck is doing protective work in all of them, and in most programs it is still the least trained muscle group on the body.
This is the gap Iron Neck was built to close. Not a gadget for one weight room, but a system any program can run: 360 degrees of resistance, isometric and dynamic work in the same session, and progress a coach can load, measure, and report. It drops into the block you already run and scales from a 25-person squad to a full roster.
Pat has committed his career to the wellbeing of athletes, their physical protection and their development as people inside the programs that shape them. We share that commitment. Prevention starts in the weight room, and it starts before athletes ever reach the next level.
Protect the player. Protect the program. That is the standard, whatever the sport.
One Convention. Every Coach.
Dr. Pat Ivey has spent more than two decades inside college athletics, from the weight rooms of major football programs to the CSCCA board. He has seen the profession change, and he has seen what has not changed fast enough. When the latest CTE research landed, he did not read it the way a reporter reads it. He read it as a coach who has spent his career responsible for other people’s sons and daughters.
That is what this conversation is about. Pat and Iron Neck founder Mike Jolly sat down to talk through what the research actually says: that risk builds across all years of play, not just the professional ones, and that the window to protect an athlete opens long before they ever reach a college roster.
Pat’s challenge to his peers is direct. Whatever is holding you back from taking neck strength seriously, whether that ends up being Iron Neck or anything else, get over that hump. Your athletes cannot afford for you to wait.
That challenge is bigger than one conversation and bigger than football. The responsibility Pat describes belongs to every coach in every sport where athletes collide, accelerate, or absorb force. Hockey. Soccer. Wrestling. Lacrosse. Rugby. The neck is doing protective work in all of them, and in most programs it is still the least trained muscle group on the body.
This is the gap Iron Neck was built to close. Not a gadget for one weight room, but a system any program can run: 360 degrees of resistance, isometric and dynamic work in the same session, and progress a coach can load, measure, and report. It drops into the block you already run and scales from a 25-person squad to a full roster.
Pat has committed his career to the wellbeing of athletes, their physical protection and their development as people inside the programs that shape them. We share that commitment. Prevention starts in the weight room, and it starts before athletes ever reach the next level.
Protect the player. Protect the program. That is the standard, whatever the sport.
Measure What Matters
Coaches do not program on faith. Iron Neck gives you numbers: resistance loaded, reps completed, strength gained week over week. You will know exactly how much stronger every athlete is getting, and exactly how much protection that strength is buying them.
Built For The Block You Already Run
No periodization rewrites. No staff retraining. Iron Neck drops into the warm-up or accessory block your program already runs, takes under four minutes per athlete, and works on the squat racks you already own.
Every Roster. Every Sport.
Concussion risk does not check what sport your athletes play. From football and hockey to soccer and wrestling, from a 25-athlete high school squad to a full D1 roster, the same system scales to protect every athlete you are responsible for.
