How To: This deals with a wide range of thoughts. How To is teaching great technique. How To is progressing along a string of
variations to obtain the greatness that you have always dreamed about. It is the mainstay of the program. Without great technique you are looking at
increased injuries and a reduction in the optimum speed of movement because
without the How To power and speed will be dissipated through improper
angles. Once this happens your athletes
will continue to be less than they should because their free movement will take
on the aspects of your technically flawed training process.
·
Technique: Technique is the key to gaining any quality
be it Speed / Agility / Strength / Power / Endurance / Flexibility / Mobility
or Stability. When we are working with
athlete’s the How To is the primary factor that we are watching. If an athlete is doing a movement incorrectly
it could hinder improvement or lead to an injury.
·
Compete: I believe that competitiveness is a teachable
behavior. When you teach athletes How To
compete they will show faster improvement because the athlete is not just
“doing work” – there is a cause to their labor – when they learn how to pull
that desire from down deep they can become an unstoppable force.
·
Work
Ethic: Every year I am given a new group of athletes whether they are
incoming 9th graders – freshman in college – rookies in the league
or new additions I cannot just assume that they know how to work to the level
that will be expected by their sport or position coaches. It is my job to teach them to give great
effort and the benefits of giving their all in the pursuit of their dreams.
·
Respect:
As athlete’s come into work I must instill in them a pride within themselves
and towards the program, their teammates and people outside the program. They must see the role that they play in the
large picture and how important it is to train to their highest level. This inner confidence will help them to have
self-respect. It is well known that
before a person will or can respect anyone else they must respect
themselves. This respect begins with the
application of two simple rules – Be Early & Communicate. When they begin to understand these they will
understand how important the training is towards the
·
Communicate:
This is my 2nd rule of the weight room (the first of my two
rules is to be early) – so that tells you how important this area to me. But athletes need to learn how to
communicate. Oh they can talk – but it’s
the way they need to talk that is important to me and the success of the
program. Also they need to learn the
most important part of communication – to listen. When you getting them to talk the right way
and to listen to the people that matter you now have a chance.
How Fast: This progression looks not only at how fast an athlete, a
bar or any other implement is being moved but also How Fast the program
progresses. Progressions are the key to
everything. As you develop your training
plan you will find where the How Fast fits in to the big picture. You will see when you are moving too fast
because things will become sloppy.
Before this happens slow your progression to ensure that the technique
is set so the speed is happening like it should.
·
Speed of
Movement: With movement being the key to my philosophy you know how
important this is. But if you are not
moving with great technique then all the speed that one athlete can develop is
wasted, because of increased chance of an injury and power dissipation because
of poor angles. I watch programs where
coaches have a series of lifts that are based in slow “power” movements. When I watch these teams play they mimic
their strength programs. They are slow –
sure they are strong – but they are not able to bring this strength to bear
because of they lack the ability to move into a position to utilize that
strength that positively affects the play.
·
Speed of
Bar: As a coach you will need to ensure that your lifts will reach the type
of speed that you are going to be asking for in practice and in games. I use Clean Pulls – Olympic Lifts – Box
Step-ups and other ballistic movements to ensure that they athletes are moving
with great speed. I realize there are
several programs that will use the speed of bar with pressing and squatting
exercises. I have used some
“compensatory acceleration” work in the past but the risk / reward issue limits
this. To get max velocity training
involved with a pressing movement I will use Med Balls – yes the weight is
limited but the athlete still can get great speed of movement to help with
punching and extension. Bear Squats /
Pit Shark and other lower body machines can be used to get speed into your
lower body movements. I don’t like doing
acceleration movements with a bar on the athlete’s back because of the chance
that the bar will become unseated and will cause an injury either in contact or
when the bar lands incorrectly on the shoulder.
This is a personal issue – I’ve seen many successful coaches use
ballistic training without issues.
·
Tempo: When
we are in the weight room we don’t have a rule that says athletes can’t
sit. They don’t sit because of the pace
of the work out does not allow them the time between sets to sit down. The rule in the weight room is; THE BAR NEVER
RESTS. This means that as soon as one
athlete finishes their set – the next athlete steps in and will begin their
set. I like to have 3 athletes in a
group with similar strength levels so that there are very small weight
changes. The system of 3 athletes will
have one athlete working / one athlete spotting / one athlete is getting ready
for their next lift. If you have more
than three then add a mobility movement for the other athletes who are in the
group so that everyone stays busy.
During the Movement Program – the tempo of work is very similar to what
will be asked for in practice and in games.
You will find that once you have taught this tempo during the off season
it will bleed onto the practice field and your players will be very efficient
in their work as well.
·
Speed of
Progression: This is one of those things that they can’t teach – this is
all about feel. You need to “feel” when
the transitions need to be made. Each
off season I would go back to square one on the teaching process of intricate
movements. Reminding the athletes to
focus on landing right in their plyometric movements. As the athletes show that
they are ready for the next progression the transition needs to be smooth and
almost unnoticed in the big picture. Too
many programs will “schedule” transitions and progressions. This would assume that every athlete and
every off-season / season are the same. A
coach needs to be so tied into his athlete that they know when the progression
is appropriate.
How Much: The bad part of
How Much is that too many coaches become obsessed with How Much – all they care
about is How Much are the players lifting – How Much are they running – How
Much time did it take that player to run 40 yards. To me this thinking is the last thing one
should focus on. When the How Much
becomes the main emphasis you have stopped developing athletes and are now
focused on the maximal results. When
this happens you have lost the key to how to train your athletes to the best of
their ability. You have stopped doing
what is right and have become lost in what is flashy. While at USC we only had 5 athletes that
could bench 500 pounds or more … each one of these guys were natural benchers
they would have become 500 pound benchers in any system. The important thing is that the teams that
these 5 guys played on would routinely go out and beat to dust teams that
bragged about having 20 – 25 500 pound benchers.
Coaches who are more worried about
their record board are more worried about their ego and less concerned about
training the athlete. Their training
hierarchy is How Much / How Much / How Much.
Max lifts and other numbers must be built up to – as a program wastes
time to get to these numbers they will sacrifice the athleticism of their
team. Beware of the program that brags
too much about How Much they are doing because in the end More is actually
Less!
·
Weight: The
amount of weight that your athletes lift should be challenging but should not
break their Technique (How To) or their Speed (How Fast). When the Weight (How Much) begins to reduce
the other two parts of the hierarch it’s got to be pulled back. I watch athlete’s lift in other programs and
I see that the How To and The How Fast are thrown out the window in pursuit of
the How Much. Keep your athletes strong
enough to play at the highest level but make sure they are safe and that the
weight they are lifting benefits the total program not just a coaches ego.
·
Reps /
Sets: The way that you plan the reps and sets can be the safety check that
keeps the program from plateauing. When
things have been hard during the movement portion don’t continue to grind the
athlete because your schedule says you are supposed to do a certain number of
reps and sets. Maybe it was hot – maybe
it was cold – maybe it was one of those days that the athletes really had a
great day of movement – or it was a terrible day of movement because they were
tired because of school wide test date.
Don’t penalize your athletes – re-charge them with by lower either your
reps or your sets or your weights so that the rest of the week doesn’t suffer.
·
Workload:
This is the total amount of work that you are planning on doing for that
day or that week. Make sure that the
amount of work you are expecting to do is balanced with everything else that
you are wanting to get done. Don’t do a
huge Tuesday Squat day knowing that you are going to do a lot of speed work on
the Thursday workout.
·
Information
/ New Movements / Gimmicks: This is a constant battle. As you study your program, talk to other
programs, read books, articles and watch videos, you are inundated by “new”
ideas and new tools. I have one hard and
solid rule about adding things to my programs.
One upper body and one lower body movement each training period. When you start doing numerous changes and you
begin to have a rash of injuries you have no idea which one it may be. When you control your additions you can
pinpoint a technique issue – a timing issue or maybe all of the hype is wrong
about the movement that you added into your program. I believe strongly in variation but I stay
away from gimmicks. Variation is
training what needs to be trained by using different tools and movements to
obtain your goals. These variations are
what keeps a program fresh while still obtaining great gains. Gimmicks on the other hand are those things
that are supposed to get you somewhere without doing the work … something for
nothing … that doesn’t happen in this business.
You get better and become the best because you are willing to do the
little things. These gimmicks are taking
money out of your budget, not adding improved ability to your athlete. Don’t look for short cuts – look for ways to
do what is needed to be done more efficiently and more effectively.
·
Time: Make
sure that you are not spending too much time in any one area. If you look at what are your trainable
attributes which you are going to have to continue to improve upon, you will find
out how much time needs to be spent in each area. If movement is truly important than the bulk
of your time needs to be spent moving.
Stop asking me about how you can make your team faster when you only
work on movement once a week. If it was
all about being the strongest team than anybody could do this profession. This profession is 10% knowing what to do 90%
knowing when and how to apply it.
·
Calendar:
When I set up my long term training plan, I will go to the last week of
training and work backward. This way I
know where I would like to end and then see where things need to implemented to
get to where I want to be. I set up this
plan knowing that I probably will have to re-write it several times during the
cycle in order to take in account the way the process has gone. Don’t become too rigid with your plan, yet
work to stay on schedule. There have
been some years where I ended way short of my goals – while at other times the
athletes have exceeded my plan. Both scenarios
were adapted to. I pulled back and I
added some. Now the next training cycle
I didn’t get all caught up in where we got last cycle – I went back to
fundamentals and adjusted to where the athletes allowed me to go.
When you follow this hierarchy you
will always begin with great technique.
Once the athlete has the proper technique you can build on the speed of
the movement once the technique and the speed are appropriate then you can
begin to add weight, time or reps to the overall program. The safety nets are built into this
process. Once an athlete shows great
technique and speed is added to the routine you will know when to pull back
when the technique breaks down. This
also goes along with the How Much portion – that once the technique and the
speed of the movement is consistent with the need of the training the How Much
is increased. If the load whether load
or reps or time breaks down the speed or the technique then the load/reps/time
can be reduced until the technique and speed are obtained.
