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The Strength Report: Defensive Backs

by: Trent Greener
Strength and Conditioning Coordinator, University of Washington
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My philosophy for training the college football athlete is based upon the physical and mental demands occurring during the course of a normal practice and game. Football is a collision oriented game grounded in the physical skills of blocking, tackling, jumping, running, throwing and kicking. These are skills initiated by the lower body and lend credibility to the maxim of football being played on your feet. These highly synchronized skills are executed with the athlete’s strength, speed, agility and flexibility which thankfully can be developed and improved through training. A high level of conditioning is also a must for players to execute these skills successfully for the duration of a game and a potential 5 month and 13 game season. Finally, a physical development strategy must address the injury potential for all athletes and those injuries specific to any position.

PROGRAM OBJECTIVES
    I break all of the offensive and defensive positions into three main categories when designing the University of Washington training plan. Defensive backs fall into the fast skill category along with running backs, receivers and quarterbacks. Program objectives for our defensive backs are to be fast, powerful, explosive, agile, lean and highly conditioned. The goals of the year round performance plan are to prevent injury, improve practice and game performance and instill a mental and physical confidence that comes with year round hard work and training. These goals and objectives are accomplished by utilizing athletic strength and speed training programs. These programs are built on free weight, multi-joint strength programs combined with speed, agility and jump training programs that meet the movement needs of defensive secondary positions. Washington Husky athletes train movements that enhance physical qualities and facilitate athletic success.

    Our strength and power program for secondary athletes is not so concerned with improving muscle mass as opposed to other positions. I feel that consistent intense weight training, proper dietary practices, NCAA approved supplementation and the natural maturation process will add quality lean mass over time. Except when extra hypertrophy work is needed, UW secondary athletes typically do less high rep, high volume training during the training year. Our program design addresses the fact DB’s are predominately playing in an upright (hand off ground) position. Therefore, they will spend a greater percentage of their training time initiating Olympic movements and pulls from the below knee, above knee or high thigh positions compared to their linemen counterparts.         However, all Washington football athletes pull from the deck as our primary Olympic movement. Husky defensive backs always test a 1 rep maximum effort Power Clean from the floor. Other programming differences for these skill athletes include performing more single leg strength work such as varied height step-ups and bar lunge variations. Upper body strength differences include more dumbbell presses and more jerks since they play out in space and overhead more often.

    Speed, agility and conditioning cycles are also developed with the defensive backs demands in mind. During our off-season speed school sessions, defensive backs focus on backpedaling, turning and breaking into sprints and accelerations from disadvantaged start positions. Defensive backs will also perform longer sprint work and more frequent high speed, multi direction drills. Their jump training program will include more overall foot contacts, more single leg jumps and more complex, combination drills. Due to these differences, I run our skill athletes separately from our middle big group (linebacker / tight end) and big group (linemen) during speed school.

IN SEASON TRAINING
    During the season, Husky defensive backs train on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. The goal of the in-season training program is to help maintain our strength, speed and power, facilitate recovery and reduce injury potential. Strength and power maintenance is easier for athletes that may take fewer practice reps and only take 10 snaps each game opposed to those taking 50 – 60 snaps a game and taking the majority of practice reps. Each workout is total body with a different emphasis. Each session begins with a pre workout supplement. I have a 2-3 minute chalk talk discussing program points, techniques and answer questions. We break up into 2-3 groups for our dynamic pre-workout including a variety of runs, skips, lunges, twists, crawls, foot speed drills, standing or ground based core and a shoulder stabilization routine. We then move into our power and strength exercises for the day. The last phase of the strength work is some stabilizing work or isolation exercises. We complete the training session with a hurdle walk sequence or cool-down stretch and a post workout supplement.

    Sunday workouts are critical for two reasons. These sessions facilitate recovery from the previous days game as well as starting off the week of work for our next opponent. Sunday training for Husky “travel squad” defensive backs prioritize lighter (by %’s) total body Olympic combinations, various lunges or step-ups, a jerk variation, weighted sled pulls and chins. Db’s perform timed intervals, recovery tempo runs or a pool workout following the weight room session. We have found great benefits with our pool work utilizing deep end intervals and shallow end dynamic runs and movement drills. Tuesday’s priority is strength highlighted by a back or front squat movement, bench variation, chins, a minor Olympic variation and some posterior chain work. Thursday’s workout priority is a clean variation, dynamic upper body pressing and some posterior chain work. We perform manual neck and grip work strength on Tuesday and Thursday.

OFF SEASON (See Chart)
    Our primary off season cycle January thru March consists of Monday-Tuesday-Thursday-Friday sessions in the weight room. This is the time of year to focus our efforts and competitive energies in the development of strength, speed and power. I ask our DB’s to gain lean mass and weight during this time of year. This trial period allows each athlete to learn how to move and play with their added mass going in to spring ball. Exercise selection is similar throughout the year, although the intensity of effort and total volume of training increases during the off-season. As athletes reach certain benchmarks of strength, I feel it is appropriate to look into expanded avenues of training and continued development.
    Defensive backs perform their speed school sessions Monday and Thursday before entering the weight room. This sequence emphasizes the priority for our secondary athletes ability to run and exhibit a high level of athleticism. I believe fresh legs and minds equal great focus, effort and eventually faster athletes. Fatigue can mask fitness and if our guys can’t run fast and move well, they cannot help our defense! We will end each speed school with a core program that progresses over the 8 to 9 week off-season.


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CONCLUSION
    First and foremost, whenever we are training at the University of Washington, we are coaching. The University of Washington strength staff runs a disciplined approach to training our football athletes. Athletes train during assigned times, train by position and work with a Washington strength and conditioning coach that guides their workout from the start to finish. Coaches Jason Phillips, Matt Ludwig, Rose Baker and Hans Straub do a tremendous job coaching, instructing and working to motivate our athletes to higher levels of effort and performance. We create a competitive environment each day for our athletes and conclude each week with a weight room competition that determines winners and losers.

    Finally, our training cycles are built around the realities of the university academic calendar, competition dates and NCAA policies regarding time allotted to train. We also take into account that these are athletes needing a lot of physical development during this time of their athletic life. Athletes right out of high school are still physically maturing and need to develop their bodies to prepare for the rigors of each successive college football season. Most college football athletes want to, or at least entertain the idea of moving onto the highest level of football. What they do, how they do it, and how often they do it will determine if they will or can do it!






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