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Strength Report: Wyoming’s Winter Player Development Program

by: Trent Greener
Strength and Conditioning Coach University of Wyoming
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Much like a football game has four quarters, the Wyoming football player development program is broken down into four distinct phases. Winter training, spring football, summer training and the competitive season make up our yearly training calendar. The Wyoming player development program has a structured plan during each of these phases and is built around landmarks found in the student-athletes academic calendar and competition dates. Each phase has very specific goals and intended outcomes.

Outside of playing the actual games, our winter program is the most important phase for a few reasons. The winter phase marks the beginning of a new team working toward a new season. January is the first time our new team begins to train and practice together. The winter program is also the first opportunity for new players, returning players, the strength and conditioning staff and the football coaching staff to begin working together and forging the identity of this new team.

The strength and conditioning staff begins to design the next winter plan immediately after the current winter program finishes. We evaluate every aspect of the recently completed winter program. Part of our evaluation lies in our success meeting established team physical testing goals. These include individual, position and team testing results and averages. As a program, we have established team testing standards. We want to see a minimum of 85% of our team set a personal record or reach our lofty position standards in all of our strength and performance tests.

Personal records and position standards can be set any time during the winter program. However, we do set up our final week as our Game Day in the weightroom. This is our official testing week. When all of the testing data is collected, our football coaches have a physical “state of the union” for this new team and each of their players. If we don’t meet our previously mentioned goals, we self-scout and evaluate our training program. We highlight areas where we must research and change for the following year. Our student- athletes work too hard for us not to give them the very best plan we can design.

Our 1-rep-max strength tests evaluate the entire body and include the power clean, back squat and bench press. We also test a 225-pound bench press for maximum reps. We do not allow wraps, straps or compression gear. Skill and movement tests measure linear speed, change of direction and lower body power. These tests include the I drill, 3-cone drill, broad jump, vertical jump and electronically timed 20-and 40-yard sprints. Body composition is also evaluated. Our conditioning test is not administered during the winter program.

Along with the physical testing and program evaluations, the winter plan is designed to meet very specific goals. Some goals are in place every year and never change. As a strength and conditioning staff, we must always improve our teams’ overall performance. As older players graduate and younger players arrive, we must continue developing overall team strength, speed, explosiveness and athleticism. Other goals are determined yearly by Head Coach Dave Christensen due to the changing nature of the locker room. We may need to create more leadership opportunities for players. We may also have to create situations for younger teams to showcase how truly selfless and enthusiastic they can be during extremely difficult workouts.

Based on our evaluations and team goals, we are able to design our winter plan. The 8 hours of allowable weekly work occurs in two areas over five days. We have three days of training in the weight room and two days of speed, agility and movement training on the turf. We use a Monday, Wednesday and Friday lifting format. Each day incorporates a total body approach and has a movement priority and emphasis. We train all of our linemen, linebackers and tight ends together. The remaining offensive and defensive skill positions train in another session (See Chart 1).


Chart 1: Wyoming Winter Program Design Format Over 7 weeks

Within each session, there are three training programs. A new player program is used with about 15% of the team; a developmental program is used with about 75% of the team; an elite program is used with about 10% of the team. Injured student-athletes do all of their mainstream, unmodified training with the strength and conditioning staff. After that portion is completed, injured student-athletes are picked up by the Wyoming sports medicine team and finish with any modified training and rehabilitation work.

Our new player program is for all new mid-year athletes, no matter if they are from a high school, junior college or are a final year transfer. Everyone learns the Wyoming strength and conditioning culture and how we do things. Like most university settings, the technique, tempo, intensity and coaching expectations overwhelm every new Cowboy. Another very important factor for student-athletes coming to the Wyoming campus is the 7,220-foot elevation issue. Head Athletic Trainer Bob Waller helps every new Cowboy gradually acclimatize to our altitude.

The new player program is highlighted by lots of technique work, lighter loads, no percentages and a lower but gradually increasing overall volume of work and running. Assistant Coach Michael Ray trains these athletes. After four to six weeks, Coach Ray and I will make the decision about which athletes will move up to our developmental program.

Our developmental training plan is for everyone that has been with us from the start of fall camp and has not progressed into the elite group. We must continue to get this group bigger, faster and stronger. We also continue to push this group mentally and coach them to be great starters, finishers and overall competitors. Coaches John McGee and Mike Muller spend the most time with this group getting our goals met. It must be noted that there are several players each semester that qualify physically for the elite program but do not meet the mental component. They usually are not yet fully trusted by the strength and conditioning staff to handle the elite program and are denied admission.

Our Cowboy elite training plan is now heading into its fourth successful session. The strength and conditioning staff approves each student-athlete into the elite program. Elite athletes must meet the physical requirements in our strength and performance testing standards as well as the psychological standards of our expectations. They must have great character and not be characters.

Our elite student-athletes exhibit high strength and performance measurables for their positions and have no real need for hypertrophy work. We believe our elite student-athlete’s burn a bit brighter and hotter during training because of their strength, speed and power. This program uses a lower volume, velocity based strength training program. The training protocol is grounded in the research and writings of Dr. Bryan Mann.

This approach ensures our high-level athletes don’t burn their candles at both ends and end up on the injury report. They train extremely hard and are constantly monitored by the very nature of their program. Associate Head Coach Mike Cotterman charts all of their daily, weekly and monthly velocities. Coach Cotterman makes daily set, rep and velocity adjustments as needed.

We utilize Tuesday and Thursday as team training sessions called our Winning Edge Program. The team completes a total of 10 – 12 Winning Edge sessions over a six-week period. Our Winning Edge Program is a three-station format that promotes and emphasizes attention to detail, accountability, competition, toughness and teamwork. After a ten-minute dynamic warm-up, the team breaks up into three groups based on positions and similar athletic abilities. The three groups begin at different stations each session. This forces everyone out of their comfort zone and presents a continually changing set of challenges each workout. As each group finishes the work time allotted for each station, they sprint to the next station and continue to do so until the session is completed. At the end of the Tuesday session, we will do team sprints using our summer work and rest times. It serves as a great team-finishing activity.

The three stations are: Mat Drills which are run by football coaches; agilities which are run by both the football coaches and the strength and conditioning staff; and Speed Development Drills that are run by the strength and conditioning staff. The speed development and agility stations change drills every third session. This allows our student-athletes to learn the drills during the first session and master them by the second. We change and progress the drills by adding more complexity and randomness. We also increase the work time for each station until settling on a top work time. Our recovery and transition times never change.

There are two final points about our winter program. I assign each of my staff a specific position or side of the ball to coach and train for a week. I rotate our staff weekly so every coach works with every player many times during the winter. I believe this facilitates relationship building. Every player gets to know each coach’s style and personality. Likewise, every coach gets to know how each athlete works and responds to their coaching and different situations.

Finally, our staff evaluates the entire team immediately after each workout. We huddle and I ask each coach for the good, the bad and the ugly from that day. Each coach offers input on the athletes they worked with that day. We then discuss any physical and mental trends we might see. We can then share any insight with the football coaching staff and head off any potential issues.

In addition to our specific individual and team goals, we also coordinate our programs to ensure they comply  with the physical standards of the Mountain West Conference (See Chart 2).


Chart 2: Mountain West Physical Standards

About the Author:  Trent Greener was named Wyoming’s Director of Strength and Conditioning in December, 2008. He is now in his 15th season as a head strength and conditioning coach on the FBS level. Greener was previously the strength and conditioning coach at the University of Washington. A 1990 graduate of Wyoming, Greener was a defensive lineman for the Cowboys and two-year letterman. He has also coached at Purdue, Northern Illinois, and Oregon State.






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