The Strength Report - How to Utilize Your Space to Positively Effect Your Program

The High School Perspective:

By Dave Brown,
Strength & Conditioning Coordinator, Archbishop Mitty High School (CA)

No matter how big your training facility is, you should be trying to utilize space to make your training efficient, challenging, productive and motivating. How do you train when resources are limited?

Archbishop Mitty High School has one of the top athletic programs in the nation. Sports Illustrated, in 2006-2007, rated the Monarchs’ athletic program fifth nationally, and number one in California. The football team has been to the playoffs 12 times in the last 17 years, made it to the state section finals five times and won three league or state section titles. All done in a 700 square foot chain-link fence weight room. In September 2008 we occupied a new 3,000 square foot two-level Official Hammer Strength Training Facility. Why were we so successful? It doesn’t hurt to have good athletes. Last year we had 48 senior student/athletes sign collegiate letters of intent. However, once you have those athletes you have to train them.

Knowing resources were limited, I identified four areas I thought we could focus on to bring us success and were within our facilities’ capabilities: motivation, strength, athleticism, and speed.

The most important and often overlooked is motivation. You don’t need any facilities for this. Don’t ever let your kids know your training facilities are not adequate. Make the weight room part of your identity. If it’s nasty you’re junkyard dogs, if it is really nice you are polished and poised. But always have pride in your training facility. Do strength and performance testing, post results and have incentives for your high achievers. We had record boards in the weight room – 4 x 8 sheets of plywood painted in the school colors with individual weight columns. When a player’s performance qualified him for recognition, he was given a wooden board with his name on it that hung on the record board until he graduated. Then his board was attached to the ceiling and stayed there for good.

Speed, athleticism and strength were next, and in that order. In high school, speed can make up for a lot. We did video running analysis; the players analyzed their form and made the appropriate corrections. We worked on speed and change of direction as part of our daily routine. We have a timed 10 X 40 yard routine that not only got us faster but it also gave us the ability to determine position placement as well level of anaerobic capacity.

Athleticism is easy to identify but hard to teach. We encouraged our players to play other sports, especially wrestling and track and field. We also did a lot of work on motor neuron recruitment in the off-season. Most of us know that as functional strength training.

For strength we had all the football players in a class from January to May so everyone was lifting year-round. Things were periodized for our in and out of season players. We used the gym or the football field as our overflow weight room. We pushed and pulled just about everything. From plate weights to mega truck tires, setting up strong man or high intensity work capacity circuits was commonplace. When you don’t have the resources the only thing that limits you is your creativity.

The College Perspective:

By Pat Ivey, M.Ed., CSCS, SCCC, USA-W
Assistant Athletics Director for Athletic Performance, University of Missouri

At the University of Missouri, we are very fortunate to have several facilities at our disposal for training our student athletes. The Yeckel weight room equipment was upgraded in 2008 with over $500,000 in additions and replacements from Hammer Strength, Life Fitness and new technology. We have 20 athletic teams with over 500 athletes that compete at the Division-I level in the Big 12 conference. Through the use of three weight room facilities, an indoor practice facility, a field house, and an outdoor track, we are able to do any type of training we can imagine. The men's and women's basketball programs have a state-of-the-art facility of their own in the confines of Mizzou Arena. The Sally O. Nichols weight room boasts 2,500 square feet of training space and is utilized by the basketball teams. In January 2007, the wrestling team added a fully functional weight room on the 4th floor of the Hearnes Center to complement their training facility. While the wrestling team will still utilize the Yeckel Training Center, this addition allows for much needed flexibility in-season. This facility comprises 2,500 square feet.

The Yeckel Training Center is approximately 15,000 square feet with 11,000 dedicated to weights and sports nutrition and 4,000 designed for the cardio theatre, plyometrics, and warm-up area. There are three storage rooms, a room that houses the DXA, and seven offices for 10 strength coaches. This facility has two levels, with a 60-foot ceiling that creates the “wow” effect for first time visitors. On the balcony, the Mizzou staff conducts pre-workout warm-ups as well as some testing as the turf is lined in 5-yard increments. The balcony also features a cardio theatre with 10 flat-screen LCD televisions that are suspended from the ceiling and sit directly in front of the cardio equipment at the edge of the balcony overlooking the main floor. Here athletes and staff can bring headphones or iPod devices to plug into receivers on the cardio equipment and listen to any of the 10 televisions or tune into one of 10 pre-programmed radio stations.
Even with such a facility as the Yeckel Training Center, the Mizzou Strength Staff is often faced with challenges including team workout times and the space and equipment to adequately train them all to compete at a championship caliber. Weekly meetings between all strength staff members are imperative for the organization and workout design of all teams. Many times the staff has to compromise with what exercises and equipment each team will use because several teams have to lift at the same time. Because of the demands placed on this facility which was just recently constructed in 2006, the Mizzou Athletic Department is discussing plans for an overflow weight room to be built in the near future. Athletic Director Mike Alden has made Athletic Performance a priority here at the University of Missouri and our student athletes are primary beneficiaries.