The training program I designed
is real simple, and on paper, or in a clinic talk, is probably not
going to turn a lot of heads. Our emphasis instead is on cultivating
attitude and effort, combined with a year-round climate of discipline
and toughness. In summation, 25% of our program is WHAT we do, while
75% is HOW we do it.
Let me first start out by talking about
conditioning. Work capacity, or the ability to sustain effort, is
critical both on the field, and even in the weight room. It is the
foundation for optimizing all physical activity, and the lack of
it, a precursor for injury. As an athlete you don’t need to
be in great shape year-round. But you should never be completely
out of shape. It doesn’t mater how strong or fast you are if
you can’t sustain effort play after play. There is, however,
no off-season program that gets a man totally ready to play football.
The biggest part of preparing to play football is practicing football.
Our FB coaches must have bodies and minds that are physically and
mentally prepared to practice at the highest level. That is the
primary focus and goal of our off-season.
As we all know, football is a tough sport, and it’s not for
everyone. To me, it is the best sport there is for offering both
a mental and physical challenge, with marathon running and wrestling
being right in there with it. (As a matter of fact, when I was at
Oregon State, there were times in the winter that we used to send
all of our linemen to the OSU wrestling coach for their winter conditioning.
I assure you that experience has not been forgotten by those involved.)
As previously mentioned, we consequently strive to develop tough
minds and bodies in planning and structuring our training program.
I have always believed that the tougher our players are mentally,
the tougher they will be physically. Remember, the man who mentally
won’t do it is the same as the man who physically can’t
do it. We strive to develop mental toughness by doing several things
in our workout program. First, we have what we call a mandatory
“stand tall” philosophy whenever we are training. No matter
what the circumstances, we do not allow any athlete to physically
bend over, touch their knees, take a knee, sit down, or lean up
against anyone or anything for physical support when they are fatigued,
ever. This includes even when in our weight room where you are never
physically allowed to sit down unless doing a specific exercise.
This is important for two reasons. Number one: If you bend over
physically, you are bending over mentally. Number two is that any
appearance of fatigue is encouraging to our opponents. Also true,
in the reverse, is that the non-appearance of it is demoralizing
as well.
We also don’t play the stereo while working out. This is strictly
a focus issue. I’ve seen more workouts over the years ruined
or compromised by the distraction of player disagreements over music
selection, volume, etc. We don’t play music during sport practices
either, and the reasons are the same for both. It is my belief that
if you are focused on working hard, music becomes irrelevant, and,
consequently, when you are focused on music, hard work becomes irrelevant,
no matter what the activity. In addition, it is more difficult to
communicate and coach for all of us with loud music present.
In summation, our mind-set here at WSU is very simple: Make toughness
a mandatory part of your thinking whenever you are physically doing
anything in our program. I firmly believe this trait can be improved
and cultivated in all human beings.
The bottom line to developing mental and physical toughness is this:
You must create situations where your players are forced to think
about quitting. The key word here is “think.” I tell our
players that it is no disgrace to think about quitting. We have
all been in situations at some point in our lives where we have
thought about quitting something. We want to create a mental proving
ground for overcoming the urge to quit, while hopefully preventing
it from ever happening. If you’ll take a play off in a workout,
the odds are you’ll do it in practice and games.
As Bear Bryant once said, after you quit once, it makes it easier
a second time. Here are some other critical points of emphasis:
Group Accountability
Just as in a game, all our players are held accountable when any
individual makes a mistake. Knocking over cones, jumping off sides,
missing a link, lack of effort, or failing to “stand tall”
are all zero tolerance issues. When this occurs, with any player,
the whole group will do 5 “up downs” at the conclusion
of the workout for each violation. The players at fault are in the
middle of a circled group of their teammates and they lead the rest
of the group. This creates peer pressure, develops leadership, and
creates a sense of urgency that forces greater concentration. Incorrect
up downs are not counted.
Off the field, we believe strongly in this as well. For instance,
if any player misses his required training table meals, his entire
position group runs after our team workout. I enforce any weight
room related discipline issues during the winter program on Wednesdays
at 6 AM, which is a scheduled team day off from training. The motivation
here is obvious. Fair and consistent discipline is critical to the
morale of your team, and remember, it’s the player’s team.
They ultimately decide by their actions and attitudes in the off
season what kind of team they aspire to be, and they must take ownership
of it at their level. In the winter, if there are any player training
related discipline issues, they are posted on the weight room grease
board. There must be peer pressure and a daily sense or urgency.
This is especially true in the summer when workouts by rule are
voluntary. Because of that, we also always try to make sure we have
a player captain or senior presence in each training group year
round.
Individual Accountability
We allow no excuses, or the old axiom “I’ll try.”
The minute anyone says this they are giving themselves an out. Either
do it, or don’t do it. This starts first and foremost with
myself as a coach. Remember, you will only get what you demand from
your athletes. Nothing more, and nothing less. We also have a dress
code in our weight room for every athlete at WSU. This is a school
pride issue as well.
Great Effort
I’m stating the obvious here, but players must learn to finish
drills. Full speed effort must become second nature in your workouts.
Finishing strongly must be demanded. There is a marked finish line,
and then there is an imaginary line several yards further that is
the real finish line. We want a “timed 40 yd dash” effort
in finishing all drills and distances.
Competitiveness
You must develop competitiveness in your workouts and identify who
your competitors and leaders are. In most cases, our players are
either competing against one another, or against a stopwatch. We
do as many agility drills as possible with players paired in twos
with people at their own position. All sprint work is done by position
group as well. When we condition, players must line up and compete
alongside others in their same position group. At the conclusion
of our winter program we have had a team wide, week long “Superstars”
competition. It was not only physically challenging, but great for
morale.
Early AM Workouts
Growing up as the son of a Marine, I have
always believed in early AM workouts and the discipline that goes
along with them. It also makes sure your players are awake and on
campus, and hopefully on to class. In the winter, we are probably
the opposite of most people in that we lift early and run in the
afternoons as a team. Our first lifting group starts at 5:45 AM,
and our entire football team is done lifting by 10 AM, every day.
We then run at 4:30 PM as a team.
In the summer, on Mondays only, we start our first voluntary lifting
group at 1:00 PM, and then run as an entire team that evening at
5:30. I feel that it is important for the bonding of our team that
at least once per week our entire team is together working hard.
On Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays we start our first lifting group
at 5:45 AM. We run immediately after lifting, and each session is
about 2 hours in length. The only exception to this is that on Tuesdays,
we do plyo’s, and our heavy power cleans inside before doing
our agility circuit outside. Because this is a full speed workout,
and a light leg day, we do all leg work after we run. On Fridays
we place our first and highest priority on back squatting heavy
step ups and lunges. We tempo run afterwards.
A typical summer program will last about 8 weeks. A normal week
would be as follows:
Monday
Tuesday
Thursday *Friday
1/2 Gassers
Plyo’s/QF**
Plyo’s/QF** Tempo
100’s
Form Run
Agility Circuit Agility Circuit Form
Run
Overtime
(Weighted Vests) (Weighted Vests) OT
Post Stretch/core OT
OT
Post Stretch/core
Balance Drills Post Stretch/Core Post
Stretch/Core Balance drills
**Quick feet drills (dots, line drill, etc..)
* Friday is our heavy squat day. It is our
top priority on this day, and requires MAX effort and focus. After
squatting, we stride tempo 100’s. Our OT on this day is always
Grass Drills. We start week #1 with 6 x 100’s, and work up
from there. The intensity is low to moderate.
An important reminder on all agility and speed drills is to allow
some recovery between stations. A common mistake (that I’ve
made) is to turn agility type circuits into endurance workouts.
Without full recovery, movements will slow down, and resultant speed
and quickness improvements compromised. There is also nothing wrong
with making circuit type workouts a “gut check” either,
with limited rest. Just understand what you are trying to accomplish.
We normally start out with a minimum of 2 minutes rest between each
station. Remember, Agility is controlled quickness.
General Training Reminders:
1. Minimize aerobic training. No pure
aerobic running except for those individuals who need to lose body
fat. Aerobic running, in excess, can slow your players down and
potentially compromises explosive power output.
2. Use the position
stance when at all possible when starting a drill.
3. Recovery. If you can’t recover,
you can’t improve physically. Be alert for signs of overtraining,
and self scout your workouts regularly. Make sure proper work/rest
ratios are adhered to on all interval training work.
4. Offense: Cadence/Defense: Ball Movement
On all running and non-station agility work we start drills on the
above commands. On offense, a QB verbally calls a snap count. On
defense, a coach stations himself in front of the group, and either
moves a hand, or, when legal, a ball. We feel that if our players
are conditioned to this stimulus in the off-season that it will
potentially reduce off-sides penalties in games and practice as
well.
5. Depth of Your Team. Evaluate who
is going to be playing, and how much. If you have little depth,
you may have to place even greater emphasis on conditioning in your
program. This is especially true on the defensive side of the ball,
where, unlike offense, you have all 11 players pursuing the football,
regardless of position.
6. Be game specific. We wear weighted
vests during both our weekly agility circuits in the summer in order
to help our players bodies get used to the weight of full pads when
they start practicing. We start with 8 pounds per vest, and work
up to 12 pounds. We taper down the very last week and run minus
the vests.
7. Footwear Specific. Make every attempt to have the athletes
wear whatever footwear they will wear during practice when they
report, most of the summer. Don’t make the common mistake of
wearing “flats” all summer then having to adjust to cleats
for practice.
8. Overtime component. We
always end every workout with some form of overtime challenge. It
can be anything. Grass Drills, Gassers, Jingle Jangles, etc...We
never tell the athletes what this activity will be in advance.
9. Run lifting workouts like a sport practice.
I got this concept many, many years ago from good friend
Jeff Connors when he was at East Carolina. He is now at North Carolina,
and does an outstanding job. Year round, our players start, and
finish, the workout together.
The strength coaches control the workout pace, and we are always
scheduled, and rotate to each lifting station, in groups. Our workouts
are normally no longer than 75 minutes max.
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