The Strength Report

by: Chris Carlisle
USC, Strength Coach
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I’ve been in the business of coaching athletes for over 20 years. I started at the high school level, moved to the junior college level and finally into the D-I College level. Prior to my coaching career I was part of the offensive and defensive line for my entire youth / high school / college football career. So in short I’ve always been interested in how to develop explosiveness and speed  in all athletes.

    Throughout all of these levels I have found that there are basics of instruction that have can be followed to obtain great success.  You must establish a general philosophy. My philosophy is How To (Great Technique), How Fast (Movement and Progression)  and How Much (Volume, Intensity and Distance).

    With these three simple ideas I can make sure that the athlete is being safe – which is a prime objective of any strength coach. That is working at game speed and increasing their work resume at a consistent level which does not forsake technique or speed of movement. Too many programs today are more concerned about how much the athlete lifts.

    Recently I was talking to a D-I strength coach who couldn’t stop talking about his 6’ 2”, 240 pound linebacker who could bench over 500, squat 700 and power clean 400. The truth of the matter came out when I asked him what this ‘Goliath’s’ vertical jump was. The answer was 28 inches. This coach had successfully developed a power lifter. But not a great athlete. In the end isn’t this what our job is; to make a high school kid into a better athlete? I know that the VJ isn’t the end all test of athleticism but it is an indicator. More then say a 40-yard dash but as an indicator to one’s ability to move in an explosive manner. For the past 3 seasons I had the great opportunity to work with a tremendous athlete named Winston Justice. Winston came in the program as pretty special athlete. When he left he was at 305 pounds, could run a 4.8 40 and VJ’d 39 inches, power cleaned over 300, squatted 600 and benched over 400.

    Does this mean he was a great football player (he was drafted in the 2nd round?) Not necessarily, but it shows that he has athletic ability that may allow him to become a great football player.

    Don’t mistake me for some “new age trainer” type who shuns the importance of loading the athlete but I do believe this development must be tied to the type of athlete you are dealing with (history of injury, sport, specific need or position in the sport).

    When I design a program for the development of explosive power I start with teaching the athlete how to move. You would be amazed at how bad some of the most basic mechanics of five-star athlete’s are coming into the college arena. I have freshmen who are amazed at how much higher they are jumping, faster they are moving and stronger they are after only 6 - 8 weeks. I’d like to think that I’m a genius but I know better then that, I’m the same old coach that used to coach football at the high school level in Nebraska and Arkansas.

    I understand that with focused attention to detailed movement progressions the athleticism of each athlete can sky rocket. Of course the speed of lift off is all due to how quickly the athlete trusts you and buys into your system of teaching. I’ve had some who bought in immediately and they are making millions of dollars and I’ve had some potentially incredible athletes who are working for minimum wage blaming everyone else for their lack of success.

    When I’m talking about movement I am talking not only about linear and multi-directional movement but also the movements in the weight room and especially the core stabilizing and strengthening movements (abdominal/low back).

    The work week is based on a two days on, one off, two days on and then the weekend. When I worked at Subiaco Academy where I had a large amount of my population of athlete’s who didn’t stay at the college prep school over the weekend I would adapt the program to a 4 day on and three day off workout so that the kids could get home with their families on Friday. The four day program that I use now is based on the 8-hour limitation instituted by the NCAA.

    Under this edict you have no choice but to adapt your training to the rules (See weekly chart for speed, strength and conditioning for offensive and defensive linemen).

Diagram 1. Weekly Strength Chart - Monday to Friday

 We begin each days work with a dynamic warm-up that will last 8 minutes. This dynamic warm-up will consist of a combination of movements and stretching that prepares the athlete for the upcoming movement and strength workout. After the dynamic warm-up we will fold into a specific warm-up according to what type of day that we are focusing on in our movement program.

    On Monday and Thursday’s we will do the linear speed, agility, core training program and proprioception work. On Tuesday and Friday’s we will do a plyometric, power ball and core training program. This portion of the workout will last about 45 minutes to an hour. As we add more work outside the time will expand. This is balanced by the reduction in the number of reps that we are doing in the weight room as we work towards finishing the preparation for the upcoming season (Strength testing, Spring ball, Movement (SPARQ) testing, Fall ball).

    You will notice that each day we are emphasizing a movement of the body in a dynamic way. The dynamic movement will be a power movement emphasizing the triple extension of the ankle, knee and hip joints or a burst / change of direction program. Training these movements on interchanging days will allow our athletes the chance to recover before the next work out.

    After the dynamic warm-up we will do the explosive strength program which includes Olympic movements and one-legged strength work on Monday and Thursday. On Tuesday’s and Friday’s we do our power strength movements which consist or the basic bench and squat movements.  These programs will last anywhere between 30 minutes and an hour.

    After finishing with the movement and strength portion of our workouts we will work hand fighting, eye/hand coordination drills, upper body plyometric drills to enhance the “little things” that make athletes better sport players.

    Dependent upon the time of the year and the training that we are doing we will use the last 15 - 20 minutes of our alloted time to do our specific conditioning work.

    As you can see the core philosophy of this program is based on getting your athletes to move in explosive fast progressions that will enable the athlete to increase their athleticism. Once we make a better athlete then the football coach can focus on his job, that of making the athlete a better, smarter, football player by working on the intricacies of the game not on the basics of movement.

Too many strength coaches worry about overall strength. The increase in strength is rather simple to do. I think that is why our profession is getting watered down by too many iron heads who want to spend too much time in the weight room. The weight room is a facilitator to movement. Once the proper amount of strength, that which the body can use to increase the efficiency of movement is obtained, then anything more than that is overkill. In the end this over-strengthening of the athlete actually can reduce the athlete’s ability to move in a powerful explosive manner.

To give credence to this argument look at most NFL football training programs. They are not looking to maximal strength, on rep efforts as the basis of their programs. They are more concerned with maintaining the athleticism of each of the players. Many of the program don’t even use free weights as the basis of their programs. I don’t have the time to jump into that argument but it shows that the best players are not training at the How Much level of my training philosophy. In college athletics we are still forming and improving our athlete’s. In a high school program they are developing the basics of the strength movements. When athlete’s like Reggie Bush, Matt Leinart, Mike Patterson, Shaun Cody or Troy Polamalu started there was a developmental period. Then we phased into a training refinement in which they met their highest level of power and explosiveness. As they went into their Junior and Senior years, at the end of their college careers, we were working at advanced levels of training so as to finish their athleticism without overloading them.

In the end if you want to train your athlete’s to be more powerful and more explosive you must continue to enhance their ability to move, change direction, balance and to move with powerful, explosive quickness. The weight room has a definite role to play in this development but it also has a limited role as to how much is needed to play at the highest level.

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