Great coaching begins with understanding the athlete.
That idea was at the heart of the 2026 Soldiers To Sidelines Adaptive Athlete Coaching Certification Seminar, held virtually September 21–24. Across four evenings, members of the military community learned directly from adaptive athletes, coaches, medical and rehabilitation professionals, and leaders in adaptive fitness and sport.
Led by Soldiers To Sidelines Adaptive Athlete Director Emily Kramer Throckmorton, the seminar went beyond simply discussing exercise modifications. Participants explored the relationships, communication, accessibility, training principles, recovery strategies, equipment, and coaching practices that can help coaches better understand and serve the individual athlete.
Throughout the week, one message continued to surface: effective adaptive coaching isn’t about having one answer for every athlete. It starts by listening, learning, building trust, understanding individual goals, and adapting with purpose.
Day One: Understanding the Athlete and the Purpose of Coaching
Soldiers To Sidelines Founder and Executive Director Harrison Bernstein opened the seminar by welcoming participants and introducing the certification experience before Renda Osman of Wounded Warrior Project discussed adaptive sports programs and opportunities available to warriors.
The evening’s keynote came from retired Marine Corps combat engineer and Paralympic medalist Rob Jones.
Jones shared his journey after losing both legs above the knee while serving in Afghanistan and his path through rehabilitation at Walter Reed, eventually learning to walk and ride a bicycle before pursuing competitive rowing and earning a bronze medal at the 2012 Paralympic Games.
But his message to coaches extended far beyond his athletic accomplishments.
Drawing from his military and athletic experiences, Jones connected leadership principles such as teamwork, prioritization, ownership, and empowering others to the coach-athlete relationship. He also emphasized five important components of building relationships with athletes: trust, listening, respect, influence, and care.
His message reinforced an important lesson for participants: techniques and circumstances may change from athlete to athlete, but the fundamentals of great coaching—relationships, communication, trust, and care—remain essential.
Dr. Allison Kyral followed with Foundations of Adaptive Fitness, moving the conversation into practical application. Participants explored functional movements, common considerations when adapting training, and equipment modifications that can provide athletes with different ways to perform movements and pursue their training goals.
Rather than beginning with a diagnosis, coaches were encouraged to understand how the individual athlete moves and determine adaptations based on their specific needs.
Bernstein closed the evening with the Soldiers To Sidelines Inverted Pyramid of Coaching Success. His presentation challenged participants to think beyond technical knowledge and strategy and consider inspiration, motivation, mindfulness, relationships, and understanding an athlete’s “why” as essential elements of coaching.
Day Two: Community, Recovery and Performance
The second evening put the athlete’s voice front and center.
Paris Smith shared his journey following a T3 spinal cord injury sustained in March 2025. He spoke candidly about his rehabilitation and continued training at Kaizen Adaptive Training, as well as the role coaches, volunteers, family, and community have played throughout his journey.
Smith shared how his training has progressed as he continues developing strength, pursuing greater independence, and participating in new athletic experiences.
For the coaches listening, his story provided something no textbook could: an opportunity to hear directly from an adaptive athlete about what meaningful support and community can look like.
Navy veteran and physical therapist Dr. Twila Ruefer continued the evening with The Power of Touch. Her presentation explored manual therapy, recovery, nervous-system regulation, breathwork, consistency, and the importance of building trust with an athlete. She also discussed how fitness and recovery can complement one another as part of an athlete’s overall development.
Shayla Hayward-Lundy then took the seminar Beyond The Game, exploring creativity and art as tools for connection and team bonding. Drawing from her experience as a board-certified art therapist working with military, veteran, and adaptive communities, she demonstrated how materials and activities can be thoughtfully adapted while maintaining an inclusive, low-pressure environment.
Dr. Clay Harrington concluded the day’s presentations with Intro to Running for the Below-the-Knee Amputee. Participants learned about prosthetic components, running mechanics, strength and mobility considerations, training modifications, and signs that may indicate when collaboration with a prosthetist is appropriate.
Together, the day’s sessions demonstrated that athlete development doesn’t begin and end with a workout. Community, recovery, relationships, creativity, and access can all be part of the larger coaching environment.
Day Three: Independence, Adaptation and Individualized Coaching
Day Three continued to center the experiences of adaptive athletes with Colin Tibbs and Finding Strength after SCI.
A former collegiate soccer player, Tibbs shared his experience following a C6 spinal cord injury and his journey through physical therapy, occupational therapy, and strength training.
He discussed learning new approaches to independence, using adaptive equipment, exploring adaptive sports, and developing strength and endurance that can carry over into everyday life.
Tibbs also opened the conversation to questions, giving participants an opportunity to learn directly from his experiences and ask what coaches should understand when beginning to work with athletes following spinal cord injury.
Dr. Lisa Prasso followed with From The Ground Up, exploring training considerations for athletes with limb loss and other complex injuries. Her presentation covered movement foundations, progressive loading, balance and stability, prosthetic technology, and ways movements such as squats and deadlifts can be adapted while preserving the intended purpose of the exercise.
She also emphasized an important responsibility for every coach: understand your scope of practice and recognize when collaboration with physical therapists, prosthetists, and other professionals can better serve the athlete.
Dr. Leslie Prom continued the evening with Exercise After Neurologic Injury, providing participants with a deeper understanding of exercise following spinal cord injury, stroke, traumatic brain injury, and other neurologic conditions. Coaches learned about motor control, movement patterns, tone, safety considerations, neuroplasticity, and principles of motor learning.
The discussion reinforced that adaptation is not simply about changing equipment or substituting an exercise. Coaches must also consider how an athlete learns, moves, responds, and progresses.
Dr. Saunora Prom rounded out the evening with Common Musculoskeletal Issues and Non-Surgical Options for the Adaptive Athlete, discussing treatment considerations and the importance of appropriate collaboration between athletes, coaches, rehabilitation professionals, and medical providers.
The day’s presentations reinforced a concept that had surfaced throughout the seminar: preserve the goal, adapt the approach, and coach the individual.
Day Four: Access, Inclusion and Effective Coaching
The final evening began with Chelsea Tharrington and the story of Team Hoyt Virginia Beach.
Her presentation, Team Hoyt Virginia Beach: History, Purpose, and the Power of Inclusion, traced the legacy of Dick and Rick Hoyt and demonstrated how that legacy continues through opportunities for athletes to participate in endurance events.
Tharrington discussed athlete identity, belonging, communication, race-day preparation, equipment considerations, and the importance of ensuring athletes have a voice in decisions surrounding their participation.
Her presentation showed how access to sport can create much more than an opportunity to compete—it can create community and meaningful shared experiences.
Dana and Mark Harris of Equip Products followed with Breaking Barriers: Adaptive Equipment for Inclusive Fitness.
Through demonstrations of adaptations for Skiers, bikes, rowers, ropes, and other fitness equipment, participants saw how athlete feedback and thoughtful design can create additional ways to train. Their work also reinforced a concept coaches had encountered throughout the week: an adaptation does not necessarily have to change the purpose of an exercise.
Sometimes the goal remains the same. The path to achieving it changes.
Bernstein brought the four-day seminar to a close with Effective Coaching, returning the conversation to the fundamentals that apply to every coach.
Trust. Communication. Preparation. Candor. Environment. Active listening. Empathy. Connection.
Participants explored how coaches can communicate honestly and compassionately, prepare intentionally, manage their own responses, and create environments that support positive coach-athlete relationships.
It was a fitting conclusion to a week devoted to adaptive coaching because the final lesson wasn’t about a piece of equipment or a specific modification.
It was about being a better coach.
Listen First. Adapt With Purpose. Coach the Individual.
Across four evenings, Soldier Coaches heard directly from adaptive athletes about their experiences. They learned from medical and rehabilitation professionals. They explored adaptive fitness, recovery, neurologic injury, prosthetics, accessible equipment, creative team building, endurance sports, communication, and coaching philosophy.
Yet the most important lessons connected all those topics.
Know the athlete in front of you.
Listen before assuming.
Build trust.
Understand the athlete’s goals.
Adapt with purpose.
Recognize when another professional’s expertise is needed.
And create environments where athletes have a voice in their own development.
Under the leadership of Adaptive Athlete Director Emily Kramer Throckmorton, Soldiers To Sidelines brought together athletes and professionals with different experiences and areas of expertise so Soldier Coaches could hear multiple perspectives rather than being given a single definition of adaptive coaching.
The seminar also reflected the continued support of Wounded Warrior Project in creating opportunities for members of the military community to learn, connect, and continue serving through coaching.
For Soldiers To Sidelines, becoming a better adaptive coach is part of a larger commitment to becoming a better coach, period.
Because while the approach may change from athlete to athlete, the responsibility remains the same:
Understand the athlete. Build the relationship. And coach the person in front of you.
Four nights. Hundreds of coaches. Some of the best minds in basketball. One shared purpose: becoming better coaches for the people we have the privilege to lead.
From August 24–27, Soldiers to Sidelines brought together members of the military community for the 2026 Virtual Basketball Coaching Certification Seminar, providing four evenings of coaching education, leadership development, and connection at no cost to those we serve.
Participants joined the opening night of the seminar, which featured coaches and basketball leaders from across the game sharing lessons that extended far beyond X’s and O’s.
Throughout the week, conversations covered everything from team defense, offensive systems, practice planning, player development, and fundamentals to culture, communication, accountability, relationships, and the lasting influence a coach can have on an athlete.
And while every presenter brought a different perspective, a common message emerged throughout the seminar:
Great coaching is ultimately about people.