Getting up early to build alactic capacity

As I posted in a article on Elite FTS, the importance of alactic capacity for football are clear. The one thing that is challenging is organizing a program that allows 80+ guys to accomplish this at the same time.
Educate your coaches
In the past, our coaches were all about LACTATE, LACTATE, LACTATE! Needless to say athletes were ran into the ground for "conditioning" All it took was a simple sit down meeting with a written plan of execution, and letting them know how to follow through with that plan. Showing them how to split up groups and making sure the athletes do not go over the set intensity or volume while following proper rest times. Coaches are great at organizing drills and getting athletes to listen and follow suit so once they communicate with the athlete the desired execution of the drill it will be done that way.

Educate Your Athletes
I have often been apart of drills during practice, training, and so forth and athletes are constantly asking, "Why are we doing this?" Not in the form of complaining but because of curiosity. Especially at the collegiate level, they want to KNOW that what they are doing is making them better. So it is key to let them in on your methods in the weight room and during conditioning. This can go a long way. This is the difference between having one pair of coaches eyes compared to dozens of eyes keeping track of everyone and whether they are utilizing there time efficiently. I have had pretty much every senior approach me asking me why we are doing this and what benefits come from a certain method (mostly due to not ever being exposed to them previously) and they all listen intently and are always glad to know what is going on. This has helped during weight room coaching cause they are just as good about cueing each other. Also during conditioning they are getting guys to hustle from spot to spot to meet the time requirements.

For example Wednesday morning during our conditioning. It was great having athletes motivating each other and knowing that when the previous group was finished, they had to get to the line and go go go! We did a variety of movements lateral and linear for a set set time which gradually increases in volume throughout the mesocycle.

It is obvious that communication with training is key and it involves everyone. People being left out will miss out. Notice that there was more to mention in terms of communicating with athletes. Coaches are great and mine have done a great job at delegating the instructions but the athletes have made a tremendous difference in getting things to run smoothly because they are the ones putting forth they effort and have a desire to do it so that they improve as much as possible.

Off-season football Training

When you are playing college level sports there are a few things you need to consider when training the athlete. One of these things is training age/level. We have a wide variety of athletes coming form programs that have never really lifted in high school to guys that have competed in the sport of weight lifting itself. For these guys, sticking them on a developmental plan just isn't going to get them training effect to reach the highest potentials of there preparedness. Here is a sample day of a Semi-skill Red workout. Red would indicate the higher level of training in that particular skill group.

This group of athletes has the necessary cross-section area, strength, and training age, that they have stopped being able to make progress on a more developmental workout. Our less advanced will do very well on basic progressive overload, very concurrent, and will respond to any form of load given.

It isn't as if I am against everyone following the same workout or progression, but I have the time, equipment, and motivated enough athletes to do this sort of work.

Down the road they will be introduced to some more specialized conditioning and speed work that will hopefully serve to be the tool that can take off that extra tenth to get them putting up some sick times and leaving defenders far behind.

Often times it is very self-motivating to work, train, and play alongside many of these more advanced athletes that have been working at the iron game since they were extremely young like I did. These guys are always ready to start and are running full throttle the whole time they are in the weight room.

Realization....What is it?

The realization block is commonly known as the (pre-competition phase) which means it is the final block in any particular training stage. The purpose is to put on the best performance possible within a given range of fitness (Zatsiorski, 1995). Following the very fatiguing transmutation block which accumulates a certain high level of fatigue should lead seamlessly into the realization block meant to eliminate this fatigue so that all the residual effects come together and "peak" at the end of you training stage. So the first aim is to provide and facilitate restoration and ultimately attain a supercompensation state at time of competition (Issurin, 2008).
This block can last anywhere from 7 days to 2 weeks depending on time of year (longer toward late season). Major characteristics of this block would be to monitor athletes emotional tension. Leading into competition emotional stress can have a negative impact on recovery. Exercises should be as sport specific as possible. You should perform simulation of athletes required performances as indicators of athlete performance. This is very important not only as indicators but for athletes readiness as competition approaches. Workload reduction highly depends on the length of your realization block. If it is shorter it would require a quick reduction in workload to attain supercompensation state. If it is longer block, as in a couple weeks, avoidance of de-training is paramount so maintaining loads or gradual reduction is recommended. With reduction in workload nutrition will need to be closely monitored as well. Adjustments should be made to accommodate the lower energy expenditure.
In conclusion, the realization block is key in bringing the previous blocks components and using its residual effects to attain peak performance. The most important quality to recognize is the elimination of fatigue. All the components of the BPC will ensure your athlete is at peak fitness levels to ensure best performance.

Tape an Asprin to it!!

With any sport you will see your fair share of injuries. So far in football we have had a handful on some unfortunate contact injuries ranging from a back problem, ACL, and a couple hyper extensions. Currently the Athletic Trainers have turned over most all of these athletes to me for assessment/workouts. In doing do I have noticed one very pronounced commonality. Thinking in terms of the mobility/stability continuum, they are somewhat in reverse order. I have only had a few weeks to work on this in terms of reinforcing mobility and stability in the right areas with the team but after looking at these athletes whom are sidelined, it is telling me that there will be a strong emphasis on developing these qualities this off season and now. A couple things I have also gotten done is getting the AT's to stop doing repeated flexion for rehab to strengthen "core" and we have been really working the stability component. Also working on movement patterns especially the squat. Just yesterday, after getting an injured athlete with a knee injury to squat properly, he was bewildered at the fact that all the activation was burning in his hips and he didn't feel that strain one his knees and quads to bring himself up anymore. Improving these qualities and movements hopefully will get a reduction in the amount of athletes standing on the sidelines and keeping them on the field.