Miguel Sousa
Strength and Conditioning Coach, Manual Therapist, and Educator in Lincolnton NC
Miguel Sousa is an experienced and highly specialized performance expert, dedicating his life to help athletes achieving their goals. Originally from Portugal, he started his career in sports as a swimmer, winning countless regional titles, a 50m breaststroke silver medal for two consecutive years at the High School Nationals and representing his country at the 61º FISEC Games. Later on, he played water polo for CNAC, in the Portuguese National Division 2.
His passion and dedication for sports as an athlete translated to the strength and conditioning world, leading him to specialize in sports performance for soccer and basketball. Sousa collaborated with soccer, futsal, gymnastics and volleyball teams in Portugal and Hungary, but he was mostly recognized for working with teams competing in the Portuguese Basketball League. In 2016, Sousa moved to Sweden to join Nassjo Basket, a Swedish Basketball League team, as their Head of Strength and Conditioning and to work with elite swimmers from that region.
During the summer of 2017, Sousa flew to Dallas, Texas to collaborate with the SMU Men’s Basketball Sports Performance program and the SMU Basketball Summer Camp.
In 2018, Sousa returned to USA to test his training system with high level basketball players; from Trevor Booker, to Devin Booker, Ivory Latta, Jeremy Evans, Ricky Hickman, Shawn James, Ty-Shon Alexander, Josh Hall, Naji Marshals, Briante Weber, to name a few.
He collaborated with the ECBL team Primetime Players, participated in the TBT tournament in 2021.
In 2020, Sousa co-founded the APPFB, the Portuguese Association of Basketball Strength and Conditioning Coaches, for which he was elected the Executive Vice President.
In 2022, Sousa was named Director of Sports Performance at Combine Academy. His responsibilities include coordinating the performance staff to work with the athletes from the different sports programs in reducing their injury risk and improving their overall performance by designing and implementing specific performance seasons for each individual and group.
Among an extensive list of highly recognised certifications in the sports performance field, Sousa possesses a bachelor’s degree in Sports Science. from University of Coimbra, a master’s degree in High Performance Training for Sports from University of Porto and he is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist by the National Strength and Conditioning Association.