Through my years of training athletes and the opportunities I've had to see what goes on IN high school weight rooms as well as our athletes telling us about what goes on (or what doesn't go on).....I've had some MAJOR issues with the way I see athletes being trained, or shall I say, being ALLOWED to train.
Is EVERY high school weight room shit?
Hells NO. But, unfortunately, some Coaches REFUSE outside help and refuse to grow & educate themselves, and in the end, it hurts their athletes FOREVER. What I mean by that is it limits the athletes from truly realizing their true potential because they are not getting stronger, faster, more agile, mentally tougher, etc.
The crappy program they are on, along with freedom to perform half reps, quarter reps, crap technique, etc. delivers NO results & is a HUGE liability as the injury factor increases 10 fold with what I see & hear going on.
It's NO secret that being faster, stronger, mentally tougher, more conditioned, more mobile..... ALL those traits help increase chances of winning, so why not find out how to improve these traits, right?
Depends on who you're talking to. LOTS of Coaches don't want help, shame on them for being so lazy & egotistical. It makes me sick because it HURTS the kids.
It sounds cliche but here's the truth, it's ALL about the kids. Period.
You may or may not know, I was a teacher in the town I grew up in for 11 years. For a good 5 or 6 years I had made many efforts to help the high school athletic program but it was always turned down. Even when the Football team was on a looooooong losing streak of 0 - 46 or something to that effect.... maybe it was a few losses less, who knows, the bottom line was they were NOT winning for YEARS, ZERO WINS.
Is that fair? That a kid has to go through high school and never experience one win or only a few wins? Things CAN change if the right education is put into practice. There should be NO options regarding learning how to effectively and safely train high school athletes if you are taking control of the weight room and denying any outside help.
My efforts to help the town I once lived in and worked for were always shot down, excuses were rampant and the bottom line is that you can't work for a town that follows the motto of: "Nothing less than excellence" when the truth is NOT in the motto. It was time to take "Physical Education" into my own hands rather than having my hands tied behind my back.
The bottom line was that this town once upon a time had a powerhouse athletic program across the board, with ALL sports. So when things go to shit, you'd imagine someone would want help.... you'd imagine, someone would TAKE the help being offered.
Training the high school athlete properly does a LOT of GREAT things that goes beyond making them stronger, bigger, faster....
- Proper training increases their confidence BIG time
- Proper training teaches them how to overcome obstacles, handle challenges and understand that to achieve success you must FIGHT for it, success doesn't come easy
- There is NO such thing as entitlement, instead, you EARN everything you get
- Proper training teaches mental toughness
- Proper training teaches discipline
The list goes on and on regarding the benefits of a solid high school athlete training program.
On the flip side, a shitty high school athlete training program will deliver ZERO benefit to the athlete and the team as a whole. What's a "shitty program" look like? Keep on reading....
When I did see what was going on in the weight room of this town, this is just some of what I saw:
- 1 arm curls off an incline bench
- 95% talking / 5% actually TRYING to train
- 1/4 Squat.... not even 1/2 squats
- Squatting onto a bungee chord
- HUGE psyche up sessions for squats with 3 spotters, a BIG ass pad to replace the need for BIG ass traps and a strong back
- NO coaching of technique, just shouting and screaming
- Round back trap bar deadlifts with knees caving in.
On another day I witnessed a "testing day".
I guess 14 and 15 year olds needs to get tested on their 1RM on squats, bench press, power cleans (aka the strange jumping jack, reverse curl, back bend combo while holding a barbell & attempting to kill yourself exercise), etc.
I recall the squats looking something similar to the video below, with ALL spotters unsure of what to do, the Football Coach insisting the athlete adds weight to the bar when I saw from a mile away the kid was NOT physically or mentally ready for this weight and even the spotters were untrained as to how to spot.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSTWcMdkWMA[/youtube]
This stuff pisses me off.
Kudos to the Coaches who are open mined and forward thinking and take time to learn how to organize a safe and effective high school weight training program. Shame on the Coaches who are close minded and "too cool for school" and refuse any outside help.
What's with the ego? It's NOT about you, it's about the KIDS.
When I began teaching Physical Education and coaching wrestling, I had the same beginning feelings towards being a Strength & Performance Coach. I did it because I cared. I did it because the # 1 focus was on helping the kids get better at sports AND life. It came down to caring, plain and simple. My passion for helping kids drove me to keep on learning and it still drives me to this day!
A TRUE Coach will do whatever it takes to educate himself / herself so the end result becomes helping these athletes become better at sport and most importantly, at life.
Here's a GREAT Video from my friends Joe Kenn & Jim Wendler (click to 4:30 on this video)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XEgc6DOjQ8&hd=1[/youtube]
Here are a few quick tips to follow up on what Joe is expressing for training younger AND incoming high school athletes:
1) Perform a baseline program utilizing bodyweight training & gymnastics drills for 3 months minimum and don't be afraid to continue bodyweight training & gymnastics drills for up to 6 months. From there utilize simple dumbbell movements to further build the foundation.
2) Perform exercises that are easy to learn and bring about a powerful return in results.
Here is a short list of some of those exercises:
- Push Ups & ALL the variations of push ups
- Progress to handstand holds & eventually handstand push ups
- Pull Ups with varied grips
- If Pull Ups are too difficult do NOT use band assisted pull ups, make them EARN that shit! Utilize recline rowing on a bar or on ropes to enhance grip strength.
- Perform recline rope climbs
- Progress to rope climbing
- Kettlebell farmer walks. Every set begins with a PERFECT deadlift and ends with a perfect deadlift. Strength is a skill, practice of strength will get your athletes stronger.
- Back Extensions with bodyweight and eventually added weight.
- Sled Drags
- Hand over hand sled pulls with rope while holding squat position
- Squats / Lunges
- Jumping Rope
- Hill Sprints
[youtube width="640" height="390"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCln_Kqxnvw[/youtube]
3) Perform tumbling and basic gymnastics drills as part of the warm up. Perform these on the grass or on any safe surface. Check the surface if unsure (gotta watch for things like dog shit, glass, stones, etc - trust me, been there, done that 🙂
What are the basic gymnastic drills to include during the warm up?
- forward rolls & shoulder rolls, dive rolls
- backward rolls & progress to back extensions
- cartwheels & round offs
- combo drills: cartwheel into shoulder roll OR round offs into back extensions, etc.
4) Provide a supportive AND competitive atmosphere.
- Athletes love to compete, you can still have them compete with bodyweight exercises
- Give feedback on technique, constantly reinforcing technique. If you coach one athlete, give feedback LOUD so ALL the others can hear you and benefit from your coaching
- Bust out your multiple personalities. Some kids respond great to getting in their face, cursing at them and getting loud, others might respond best to encouragement and constant reminders that they are getting better and YOU might be the only person who ever says anything nice to them!
[youtube width="640" height="390"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1vwmvCgVGQ[/youtube]
Well, this blog post wound up being WAY longer than expected, I hope you enjoyed it.
If you did, please click the like button and share this bad boy out with facebook, twitter, etc. I would appreciate that BIG time 🙂
Peace
--Z--
PS: It's rare to find a book dedicated to training athletes that REALLY breaks it down in an easy to understand manner yet still kicks serious ass, VERY RARE.
This book is One of those rare gems - check it HERE
7 Responses
WOW, That blew me away! In all honesty, I think in most cases athletes never need to go beyond the basics you stated in your blog. Combine those S&C fundamentals with solid sport specific skill training (especially proper running/sprinting/cutting technique) and the injury rate for young and old athletes WILL be reduced 10 fold. I love the comment about safe surfaces. WHEN my kids played pee wee football, I couldn’t tell you how many times I saw coaches spit chew on the practice field and parents bring their fat ass dogs and let them, you know what I mean. People are pigs. The sad truth is your never going to change the system, but DO NOT give up. Those who are willing to look will always eventually find the proper path and lead others who are willing to listen to it.
Yo Zach is the man when it comes to this underground sh*t.
The world needs more passionate men like you to drive out the weakness in men
and to develop boys into men the right way and not ego driven.
I appreciate that you are willing to educate yourself and are a lifelong student of this game.
Only people like you realize that to be a master requires to be a life long student and always willing to learn and relearn but yet keep things simple and basic.
Fundamentals baby!
Rock on with yo bad self
-AlbeRto
I doubt that kid could do 5 deep squats with 95#. Yes it’s frightening, but as you said it’s not the kid’s fault. Kids will be kids. Without instruction and guidance, they’re gonna do whatever the hell. Kudos for bringing up a big issue that should be addressed. Now lets get out there and help these guys.
Great stuff, Zach, inspirational as always. I can see that you’re a true teacher, with a passion for sharing your hard-earned knowledge with young people so that they can reach ther potential!
Great post. I remember taking a “fitness” class in college; 1 day in the gym running around and the other in the weight room circuiting through machines (can you say curves(gym)).
Just curious, why do you not like band assisted pullups? Recline rowing is better to increase ones pullups? Thanks.
Zach man this blog has me pissed off and fired up! That video of the kid squatting, I’m speechless! What did i just watch! Man times like these I’m glad we have you, defranco, mr hulse, wendler, etc. The real coaches of this world! As for these coaches who have the big ego your talking about. Their ego can’t be too good if they love losing so much! haha! Seriously even if your not about the kids, as a coach you would be at least about the team or the sport and what man in his right mind whats to lose! It baffles me why they won’t do what works and what wins! The thing that makes me feel better is watching this underground expand constantly through the internet, without the internet gold mines like your website wouldn’t be able to fix the world like they are currently doing!
Cheers to strength and to helping the younger generations our lift us, out run us and out live us!
Great post Big Z. Love it. Its always good to hear other coaches talk about this age group. I’m pulling my hair right now getting 100 freshmen introduced to our football off-season program. Simple movements, relative weight exercises and athleticism drills are the best way to go, as we progress them into the heavy weight and intensity sessions. Keep up the great work.