I have spoken a few times and written an article about the physical preparation of high school football players. Also I have posted a video of one of the high school football teams following this program here. Recently that team has done a great job and as the article said progressively adding small weight to ensure consistent gains with consistent form and execution. Here are some words from the coach and some great results:
"Of the 18 guys I had comparable information from the last time we maxed out in the fall we gained 385 pounds in bench...that is an average of 21 pounds per. Seniors averaged a gain of around 12.5 per man. 9th and 10th graders exploded...... Corey went from benching 115 to 150, Justin from 130 to 165 (he weighs 115 pounds at most). Shane (soph) jumped from 200 to 230, and Chris went from 225 to 265...awesome.. Squats and cleans showed the same types of gains..."
These athletes have been very consistent with attendance and are a very dedicated team in which most of them are multi-sport athletes too. Along with this there have been ZERO non contact injuries which is of course the most important stat when determining effectiveness of a program. You can't play if your hurt.
I have talked a few times and wrote an article about my work with the local high school sports teams and how great they are doing. So far they are on the right track to a life time of quality physical preparedness and sports dominance!! Take a look!
Over the last month I have been working with the local high school in developing a program to physically prepare the athletes for their given sport. The significance of this school is that it is particularly small. This makes athletics dependent on athletes participating in multiple sporting competitions. So, most important is the induced fatigue almost year round from sport practice and competition. This made frequency and recovery highly important when designing a program for athletes that are exerting such high efforts throughout the year.
All that being said, the focus then was on a program that didn't require high frequency of training and still was able to develop an advancement in there preparedness. This meant that proper alternation in workout were needed. Exercises in consecutive training sessions should minimally involve the same muscle groups and thus repeat the same pattern of muscle coordination (Zatsiorsky 1995, 96). Also when large muscle groups are worked periods of 48 hours or rest are optimal. For optimal recovery from training and competition a 3 day per week program was implemented. Day 1- Lower Body, Day 2- Upper Body, Day 3- Full Body. This allowing for optimal recovery between large muscle groups and for muscle groups to be worked 2X per week.
Also with athletes of this age (14-18) certain qualities need to be prioritized for further development. Enough power-related work must be done during the early years to maintain the genetically determined levels of white muscle fibers. However, until desired samototype is developed methods to increase cross-section of muscles must be emphasized. After this the reverse is true (Francis 1992, 25). Choice for power exercises range from a snatch/clean variation and a plyo metric/med ball progression. To promote maximal strength, sets are held at five reps and will sometimes drop to three. This allows for maximal loads while still inducing a hypertrophy in the muscles as a bi-product compared to singles which are also dangerous for some athletes because the high percentage requires a lot of coordination to perform the movement.
With so many athletes participating in multiple sport exercise variation can have a heavy influence on adaptation and SORENESS. If you have played a basketball game with heavy legs you know what I'm talking about. In the end performance in competition and injury prevention is the main goal. So exercise selection of "core" lifts will remain the same, while supplementary ones will change. This will induce as little soreness as possible when transitioning to a new mesocycle. Example of core lifts are Front squat, RDL, Bench Press, and Rear Foot Elevated Split Squat (RFESS). Some may think that not alternating Core exercises will ultimately lead to stagnation or plateau. But, every time you complete a performance goal that passes previous results your body is introduced to a new stimulation and will be forced to adapt. The avoidance of stagnation is how intensity is set. The training principle known as progressive overload is key. As Mike Boyle once stated, if you take an athlete and have him front squat 135 for ten reps while only adding 2.5# weights to each side each proceeding week, by the end of the year they could potentially be at 395#. A lot of problems with programs fail because athletes miss reps. SO in selecting weight, athletes started at a moderate load and are using progressive overload at small increments through out the training cycles and have shown improvement each week and PR's are already being set.
Eample:
Freshman-Football, Basketball, Track, and Baseball
Week 1-4 (last set recorded each week)
Front squat x5: 165, 170, 175, 180 (PR)
RDL x5: 155, 160, 165, 165
Hang Clean x3: 170, 175, 185 (PR)
RFESS x10: 100, 105, 110, 115
Bench Press x5: 145, 150, 155, 160
Warm Up/Activation should address coordination, preparation for training, and the undoing of the poor postural habits throughout the day. Taking into account that students are sitting for almost the entire day while a school, a build up of stiffness and tissue creep may incur. When students are sitting for upwards to an hour a half at a time only to get up to go to another class stiffness issues will undoubtedly follow. When sitting Hip flexors will stiffen which will inhibit gluteal function. This should be taken into consideration when developing a quality warm up.
Warm up: (10-12 min)
4 Hurdle/Dynamic Routine continuous
(2x each way or 1xR/L)
R/L Step over/inch worm
Lateral over/high knee pull
Backwards over/lunge elbow to instep w/ knee ext.
Alt Over-SLRDL
Lateral under- Crossover walk
Leg kick/quad pull
Activation
(1x10 each)
T-spine mobility
Glute Bridge
Lateral Band
F/B Monster band walk
Shoulder PNF
Band Pull Apart
Phase 1-Day 2
Linear Unilateral, Lateral Bilateral
Short Box single leg jump:2x3 each
Medicine Ball: Side tosses: 2x15 each (kneel)
Lateral jumps over short hurdles:3x6 each (stick landing)
All in all, the entire workout never will take more than an hour which works perfect for those who do this during P.E. class and prior to school. The key to a successful youth training program is supervision. Fortunately, the athletes have set times and sometimes multiple coaches to observe technique, motivate, and ensure safety practices. A well designed program can go a long way in terms of youth athletes having a good expereince in sport competition. Seeing improvemnts is not only motivating but also goes a long way in building character and confidence which are beneficial far beyond the spectrum of sports.
For the last few years it has been a lot of fun preparing younger athletes for sporting seasons. One athlete that I have been working with since 7th grade has really come a long ways toward complete athletic development.
Starting Slow Starting out there was really no point in putting a bunch of external load and just hoping that he would get stronger. There was a lot of time spent at Very modest weights and adjusting form and building up his Kinesthetic awareness and Proprioception.
There was one exercises that I really loaded him up on and that was the sled push. This was physically demanding as well as mentally. This was also a great way to develop lower body strength with out having to much time spent on form and positioning. If you get in the push position on a sled your body almost lines up itself automatically which I feel makes this one of the most useful moves when developing some sick lower body strength while teaching the more form intensive movements.
Now as a freshman we are still working on basic movement patterns, never losing form, and never getting to specific at such a young age.
Two ways in which I like to teach Explosiveness to younger guys is utilize the hang clean. Along with this on a different day I will usually include an unloaded explosive movement which would be a wide array of box jumps, broad jumps, and other various body weight jumps.
Once developing a solid base of strength and reinforcing technique the loading of the movements began. Here is couple of movements we used and are sticking to for a while. Here are a couple of his warm-up sets on a Front Squat and 1 leg RDL and for upper body loaded push ups.
Pretty much everything we do stops once form is compromised. Does this mean he doesn't load up and lift heavy...Hell No! He benches more than anyone in his grade, loves to pull some heavy Hex bar Deads, and rep out some heavy chins as well. The only difference between him and most other younger athletes he developed a solid base of movement through a multitude of dynamic drills. He also took the time to LEARN the specific movements before he blindly threw on too much weight and failed. But, one of the biggest keys is progressive overload. At this age if you build them up slowly, even if it's adding 2.5# weights per week, this adds up to some serious weight over the course of a year. People just have to realize that when working with younger athletes it is a long term plan to athletic development not a head start on pressing more weight.
