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Love the Grind: Summer Football Strength and Conditioning Program

by: Bruce Schlaich
Head Football and Strength and Conditioning Coach, Fruitland High School (ID)
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At Fruitland High School, we refer to our football program as the “Biggest Small School Football Program in the State of Idaho.”

Our athletes pride themselves on their off-season work ethic or what we like to refer to as “The Grind”. For our program, we run six-week strength and conditioning classes Monday-Friday leading up to the start of our double day practices. Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays are lift days; Tuesdays and Thursdays are agility and conditioning days.

We start at 7am and finish by 9am. This allows athletes time to work, play summer baseball or basketball and still have time for family/social events in the evening. Below is our lifting philosophy and how we implement it. Remember, this summer program works for us. It is my belief that a coach should find whatever strength and conditioning program works for his team and hang his hat on it.

THE GRIZZLY WEIGHT ROOM PHILOSOPHY

Our tenacious work ethic will be our trademark. We will strive to build stronger football athletes by maximizing our time, space, and technique in the weight room. Every athlete has a job to do during every minute of the workout, allowing the athlete to stay focused on the goals at hand. (We have a “Countdown Clock” in our weight room which lists the days, hours, minutes and seconds until we play our next opponent. This puts an emphasis on how critical wasted time can be.)

POINTS OF EMPHASIS

  • Technique - All players must be trained and re-trained in the proper techniques for all the heavy lifts to maximize gains and to eliminate injuries.
  • Safety - Athletes must become effective at being aware of their surroundings, allowing them to be a potential “spotter” at all times. We will strive towards an accident/injury free session each and every day.
  • Maximize - A minute wasted not getting better as an athlete, is a minute spent getting weaker.
  • Grow - Work hard and see results. Some athletes are “easy gainers”, and for some of them it takes a little longer. Get your athletes out of the habit of comparing themselves to others. Remember, it is not where they start, it’s where they finish that counts.


Weight Room Workouts

Monday – Wednesday - Friday

The weight room workouts are broken down into two distinct phases. The Core Phase consists of parallel squats (quads a minimum of parallel to the floor), narrow grip bench presses (develops functional strength for football), trap bar dead lifts, power cleans, front squats and towel benches. The Auxiliary Phase consists of a 30-minute circuit with a variety of activities. Both phases are defined by our Fruitland High school colors (Orange/Black/White). The base 3 days a week workout can and will at times be modified for some variety.

CORE LIFTS

ORANGE: parallel squat and narrow grip bench press

BLACK: trap bar dead lift and power cleans

WHITE: front squat and towel bench

AUXILIARY CIRCUITS

Each circuit has 10 stations. With athletes working together in groups, it is possible to maximize our space in the weight room. Each stop along the circuit should be three minutes of non-stop work, back and forth among each group member. The total amount of sets attained will vary by group, but they are always to be in perpetual motion for the duration of the circuit. If an athlete is not lifting, he must be jogging in place, doing jumping jacks, push ups, sit-ups or any other form of movement. I let them use their imagination as long as they are moving. We utilize a boxing timer which allows for a three-minute work period, followed by a 30-second rest break.

Orange Day (# of Reps) Black Day (# of Reps) White Day (# of Reps)

Glute/ham (12) glute/ham (12) glute/ham (12)

Horizontal plate travel (20) vertical plate travel (20) horizontal plate travel (20)

Pass the plate (10) box jumps (20) leg flexion (12)

Med ball trojans (20 ea.) incline bench (12)
Russian twists /Med Ball

Trap bar shrugs (12) sit-ups (25) decline bench (12)

Jump squat explosions (20) straight-leg dead lifts (12) hang cleans (12)

Bent over row (12) jump rope (non-stop) leg extensions

4-way neck (10 ea. way) 4-way neck (10 ea. way) 4-way neck (10 ea. way)

Ram rack explosions (12) standing shoulder press (12) straight leg dead lifts (12)

Straight leg dead lifts (12) rack bar pull-ups (12) box jumps (25)

 Weekly Progression of the Core Lifts

The 8-Week Progression

The core lifts follow a seven week progression that has three stages: base, development and peak. Each stage is two weeks in length. We use the first week to test the three rep max on the core lifts and introduce the circuits.

Week #1 - Testing and Intro of Circuits. We test a three rep max for safety reasons and convert the score to a one rep max. We have posted graphs around the weight room so athletes can find percentages of the different lifts based on their one rep max.

Weeks #2 and 3 - BASE PHASE (3X10) During weeks two and three, the core lifts will be done as three sets of 10 repetitions at 75% of the athlete’s calculated one rep max.

Weeks #4, 5 and 6 – DEVELOPMENT PHASE (3 X 5) During weeks four, five and six, the core lifts will be done as three sets of five at 85% of the athletes’ calculated one rep max.

Weeks #7 and 8 – PEAK PHASE (3 X 3) During the final phase the core lifts will be done as three sets of three repetitions at 95% of the calculated one rep max.

Agility and Conditioning

Our agility work and conditioning is done two days a week. We break our team down into skill positions and linemen. We do a dynamic team warm up and plyometrics and then break into our respective groups.

SKILL POSITIONS - We have 10 stations of S.P.A.R.Q. drills that work speed development, coordination, reaction and footwork. We go three minutes per station until all 10 stations are completed.

LINEMEN – We have an assortment of “Strong Man” type activities. We flip tractor tires, push low sleds, use rope pulls, have heavy rope work outs and truck tire pulls.

Each group has 30 minutes to complete their work before the groups will switch.

This system has served us well. We find there is still time left each day to go over plays and/or technique. We feel that this program has had a huge impact in minimizing the injuries experienced during the season and providing us the competitive edge we need to be successful year in and year out. It’s the buy- in of our athletes and parents to commit to this kind of summer program that makes it work.

About the Author:  Bruce Schlaich has been the head coach at Fruitland High School (ID) since 2001. He was also the head coach at Parma High School (ID) from 1992-2000. Schlaich has a career record of 141-52 including three Idaho State Championships and 10 Conference Championships.






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