Track and Field vs Football

Two weekends ago I spoke at the University of South Alabama's Strength and Conditioning Clinic.  Justin Schwinn, Head S&C Coach, did a great job in his inaugural year.  If you weren't there you really missed out on a great clinic. 

Louie Simmons opened up the clinic with a talk that only he could deliver.  He discussed issues of strength and power development, and did a great job in coaching everyone up on technique questions.  Kudo's to Louie.

My portion of the clinic was focused on multi planar movement development.  I opened the discussion by showing Veronica Campbell running the 200m in Beijing...and winning!!!  Had to throw that in there.  And then I followed that with a clip of an ordinary football play.  My point was that most sport coaches spend way to much time training linear speed development, when football is a multi planar sport.  You see, speed doesn't just exist in a straight line...speed also exists in the vertical plane.  We spend too much time training our football players like track athletes, when the requirements are totally different.

I then discussed the four qualities that must be trained to improve movement speed: relative body strength, hip strength/stability, elasticity and rate of force development.  We spent about 30 min on each of the topics, but there were two topics that caught most people by surprise.  The issues of hip stability/hyperextension and elasticity of passive tissues really raised some eyebrows and questions.  There isn't enough time to go into this right now, but if you are interested in this lecture contact Justin Schwinn at University of South Alabama and you can purchase your own copy of this DVD.

Also, everyone of these qualities is directly addressed/trained in Football 360.  So if you haven't bot a copy of Football 360 you need to.  Check it out at www.highschoolstrengthandspeed.com

Seattle

What a week I just had! During my spring break I decided to take a trip to visit the training staffs at the University of Washington and the Seattle Seahawks. It turned out to be a great idea.

After traveling half way across the world, I was welcomed by a "wintry mix" of snow/sleet/rain. It rocked! The mountains were beautiful and the ocean was refreshing...on top of that I had the honor of spending time with two great coaches: Ivan Lewis and Mike Clark.

Ivan and I talked about keeping things simple in a program and always providing direction for your team. Ivan outlined his philosophy on what he calls "football speed". Ivan believes the game of football is 60% movement and 40% strength (as expressed in weight room gains). I tend to agree. Maximum strength development as well as rate of force development supports sporting speed. These principles are applied in our training program FOOTBALL 360. Ivan was a pleasure to talk to and its easy to see why he's moved up the ladder so fast.

Spending the day with Mike was awesome! Mike was my strength coach at Texas A&M and he is the reason why I'm coaching today. He's not only the best strength coach out there, but he is also the best not licensed psychologist that I know! He knows how to connect with his players and move them in the right direction.

I had a great trip and it was well worth the miles on my butt!

Speed Development - Part I

National high school signing day was February 4, 2009 and after listening to all the “gurus” discuss recruiting one thing stood out…SPEED.

Every high school coach in America is looking for the edge in developing speed this off-season, and I hate to say it but most are missing the boat. A lot of money is being spent on stupid gadgets that won’t do anything more than exacerbate an already existing problem. This article will address two of the four fundamental qualities that need to be improved in order to maximize the development of your high school athlete.

Relative Body Strength

Everything and I mean everything is dependent on maximum force development. However, your maximum must be in excess of your current body weight. If you can’t develop enough force to rapidly overcome your body weight, you are in serious trouble. You will never be able to express speed-strength to your maximum capability without a higher degree of relative body strength. In addition, it is impossible to quickly achieve hip hyperextension without appropriate force production.

The following are relative strength norms for the squat exercise. Notice that these numbers are position specific.

Lineman: 2 x body weight
Mid Skill (linebackers, tight ends, fullbacks): 2 – 2.25 x body weight
Skill (wide receivers, defensive backs, running backs, quarter backs): 2.25 x body

In addition, it is absolutely vital to train unilaterally. Force is applied one limb at a time during most movements, thus we should also train unilaterally. Closed-chain activities such as step ups and reverse lunges are great for developing strength that improves acceleration mechanics. However, I believe that Prowler pushes are even more effective at developing unilateral strength. The following pictures demonstrate a type of prowler push that I use when working on acceleration mechanics. The key is to hyperextend the hip before allowing the next foot to contact the ground. This is also a great exercise for developing hip stability.

High Bar Position

Low Bar Position

HIP STABILITY

Hip stability determines how you control your center of gravity. Run in a straight line for 40 yards. Video tape yourself from the front and the back. You’ll be shocked at how much time you lose due to excessive rotation in the hips. Not only are your hips rotating in the transverse plane but they are also rotating in the sagittal plane. Picture a plate that is rotating on a table on its bottom edges…right before it stabilizes. These rotary actions are constantly destabilizing your center of gravity and preventing you from maximizing force application. As a result, you are not moving in a straight line. Instead you are deviating side/side or up/down instead of moving in a straight line.

Isometrics and what I call dynamic isometrics is the key to developing hip stability. Start by holding an isometric lunge position for an extended period of time. Once you can hold an isometric lunge for over a minute, its time to progress to a dynamic isometric. A dynamic isometric lunge is performed by either dropping into the lunge or jumping into the lunge and holding the position. In addition, you can perform dynamic upper body movements while maintaining an isometric position with the hips (great tip I picked up from Jeff Howser).

By developing hip stability you will be able to apply maximum force application into the ground without loosing force production due to excessive rotation. In addition, you will have much greater control of your center of gravity when moving in multiple planes.

Starting position before drop

Isometric lunge position (post drop)

Power Clean: Is it Really that Effective

Its about that time of year when all the high school off season programs are in full swing. Here in a few months most teams will be performing maximum efforts in the following exercises: bench press, squat and power clean. If you asked a coach why they perform these exercises they'd say, " The bench press measures upper body strength. The squat measure lower body strength and the power clean indicates how powerful an athlete is."

I'm only going to address the power clean issue, because to me it does not indicate maximum power production. The power clean is an extremely technical lift that can take years to master. Most of the time, a maximum effort at the power clean turns into a display of survival. The technique is horrible and the kids feel like they failed because they could pull the bar to their chin, yet they couldn't catch the bar. If you've ever coached this lift you know what I'm talking about.

I've been training myself for 15 years and I've still not mastered the lift. It takes an enormous amount of time to become proficient at this lift...and to me its not worth the time! In the time it takes me to train an athlete to perform a proper clean I could have taught him how to perform a vertical jump, broad jump and a clean pull.

Its my recommendation that coaches teach the broad jump(horizontal power production), vertical jump (vertical power development/indicator of acceleration capacity) and the clean pull (starting strength). If you do this you will maximize your time and have three great tests to accurately measure power production.

Winter Conditioning for Football

School is back in session and it's time to start preparing for next season. Championship teams are made in the off season. Now is the time to start building. So where do you start? Your team has come off of a championship run. It was a long season and your players are tired and beat up. Some are going to other sports and some are not. How do you deal with all of this? The easy answer if Football 360. This program is has it all. You put your kids in the program, record there max effort lifts and push print. There you have it. Easy and effective. So what about multi-sport athletes? This was my philosophy when I coached in high school. For example, we are in basketball season. If it is game day, lighten up the core lifts of the program by 10%. Also, train in the morning so the athlete has all day to recover. When tournament time rolls around, you will need to change a few things. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. There you have it, nice and simple. It you want to take your team to the next level, Football 360 will help. Remember, train hard and smart and God Bless!

Scott Hines Sr. EdM, C.S.C.S. RKC

P.S. Later this week I will touch on training basketball players and wrestlers!

Metabolic Conditioning

It’s the end of football practice and its time to condition the football team. Everyone lines up on the sidelines and begins to perform half-gassers (width of field and back). Lineman have 18-20 seconds, mid-skill has 16-18 and skill positions have 14-15 seconds. Why do we condition football players this way? Think about it, when was the last time a play lasted 14-18 seconds? Maybe the Cal-Stanford game, with all the crazy backwards passes.
Most plays in football last for about 5-6s with a 30-35s rest interval. So why do we condition our athletes for training intensities that last from 14-20 seconds?
In football there are primarily two metabolic pathways that are used to supply energy to the athlete. The first is a high intensity, short duration system. Energy is produced by metabolizing high energy compounds such as ATP (adenosine triphosphate) and CP (creatine phosphate). This energy system is capable of producing energy for 8-12s.
The second is the intermediate energy system (anaerobic glycolytic). This metabolic pathway uses a process called glycolysis to convert glucose into pyruvic acid and ATP. An additional by-product of glycolysis is lactic acid. Contrary to popular belief, lactic acid is not produced because of a shortage of oxygen, rather it is a by-product of metabolism. Research now indicates that there is a constant amount lactate in the blood; however, there is a balance between removal and accumulation. Glycolytic pathways can contribute to energy metabolism for up to 120s. With this information under our belt, we can now more accurately assign conditioning protocols for American football.
Metabolic conditioning is a general term used to describe conditioning protocols that accurately meet the demands of the sport. For football we want to condition the body to rapidly replenish ATP and CP, and buffer lactate. This is my suggestion: maximum effort sprints that last for 5-6 seconds, with a 30s active recovery. I like to separate sets of sprints just like football drive i.e. 12 play drive.

Example 1 (Receivers)

1 Rep = maximum effort route (5-6s) + 30s jog back to start
1 Set = 10 plays
Rest Interval between sets = 3-4 min
Start with 2 sets work up to 4-5 sets.

Example 2 (Lineman)

1 Rep: Prowler sled push for 5-6 seconds with 90-200lb + 30s walk between reps
1 Set = 8 – 10 plays
Rest Interval between sets = 3-4 min
Start with 2 sets work up to 4-5

This type of conditioning is best used in the summer as you are preparing for the upcoming fall season. It’s highly intensive, thus you need to make it the priority of the workout. In addition, you can now work on specific plays with offensive players and get a conditioning benefit.

Erik Korem, MS, C.S.C.S., CSCCa, USA Weight Lifting Club Coach

Super Training, Mel Siff PhD
Exercise Physiology, Brooks, Fahey and Baldwin

Core Strength

I wanted to write a short article on what I observed this past week with my athletes. I had some new baseball players join my baseball group this past week. One thing I noticed was how much core strength the athletes who have been training with me for a while had. There was a very noticeable difference in the new kids and the one's who have been training. The new players have been training, but not with us. I'm not saying this to brag, I'm just saying we focus on the core. When developing an athlete, you have to develop a strong and powerful base. Upper body strength and power is important as well. To tie the base with the upper body, you MUST have a strong core. This is a neglected part of training a large part of the time. Crunches won't get it done. If you want to train the core in a functional way, try renegade rows. Make sure the athletes keep there feet back and there butt down and back flat. Train hard and smart and God Bless!

Scott Hines Sr. EdM, C.S.C.S. RKC

High School Strength and Speed, LLC

http://www.highschoolstrengthandspeed.com/

scott@highschoolstrengthandspeed.com