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The Strength Report: University of South Florida - Total Body Movements

Why Total Body Movements?
by: Ron McKeefery
Asst. Athletic Director, Strength & Conditioning, University of South Florida
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Like anything else, it’s a strength and power game you get from resistance training. That’s why most athletes do both total body movements and Olympic lifts. The other reason it’s important is to ensure multiple joint action and full extension. More specifically, triple extension of the ankle, knee, and hip.

We incorporate that into our lifting strategy as well as work with injury prone areas with all the players. We also train multiple muscle groups and attempt to be as time efficient as possible. Our goal is to keep the athletes in shape year-round with the metabolic side of the total body movement.

Examples and Teaching Progressions

Athletes have a wide range of training history. Some of our athletes have lifted throughout their high school careers and others have never seen the weight room. Our All-American defensive lineman George Selvie led the country in tackles for loss this past season but only lifted sporadically in high school.

We teach from the ground up which benefits the lower body. During our teaching progression, proper point techniques and vertical movement with the bar are taught. Early strength coaching philosophies were taken from the two authorities at the time; that is, Olympic weightlifters and body builders. I was a competitive lifter and I’ve found you really have to teach your athletes correctly. You can’t just roll the ball out there. (See the attached charts of teaching progressions for the clean and jerk and snatch).

Clean & Jerk:
Teaching Progressions


1. Deadlift
2. Deadlift With a Shrug
3. High Pull
4. Front Squat
5. Drop Squat
6. Hang Above Knee
7. Hang Below Knee
8. Power Clean

Snatch:
Teaching Progressions


1. Deadlift
2. Deadlift With Snatch Grip Shrug
3. Pressing Snatch Balance
4. Drop Snatch Balance
5. Hang Above Knee
6. Hang Below Knee
7. Power Snatch

The point I’d like to make to high school coaches is that the weight itself doesn’t matter. It’s the intent to move a lot of weight and the speed in which you do it. It’s better to teach your athletes proper technique early so you don’t have to worry about flaws as they get older. If they’re just muscling it up they will eventually max out. Oftentimes I get athletes that have been lifting weights for a long time but they’ve been doing it wrong. Many times we can’t re-teach them and they won’t correct their technique. If you can’t teach yourself the proper progression, or are not willing to learn, you’re better off not doing it. There’s too much risk of injury.

Plyometrics

Plyometrics is also a part of our training for injured athletes. It is based on the elastic property of muscles and it’s another way to exercise the muscle fibers and train the athlete. This is a great alternative to coaches that are not trained in Olympic lifting because you’re able to train the whole body metabolically. However, it’s hard to quantify the value of plyometrics. We use our plyometric training along with our speed development training and adjust within the total body movements for our program. If an athlete is injured we find a plyometric exercise that the athlete can do. We’re looking for the explosive movement and the metabolic benefits. It’s a nice alternative to the lifts. (See Plyometic Exercise Chart).

Plyometric Exercises

1. Ankle Flips
2. Squat Jumps
3. Split Squat Jumps
4. Tuck Jumps
5. Broad Jump
6. Vertical Jump

The Jammer and Vertimax are types of equipment that can be used with Plyometric exercises. The most important thing to remember is to do the proper technique to maximize benefits.

This is the third in a series of Strength Report articles written by Coach McKeefery, exclusively for AFM. April’s subject: Upper Body Multiple and Single Joint Movements.





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