Great advice on weightroom scheduling and class organization

ailing to plan is planning to fail” is a quote from popular author and time management consultant Alan Lakein. This is especially true when trying to run a strength and conditioning program at the middle school or high school level. These programs face numerous challenges today, including overcrowded weightrooms that must be shared by both the physical education and athletic departments, and the inability to expand their facilities due to decimated school budgets. The answer lies in creative weightroom design, efficient scheduling and creative organization.

Weightroom design, organization and scheduling are all interrelated. For example, you need to consider how you are FRegardless of the size of a class, there are basic guidelines coaches can follow to make their programs run smoothly. writing your workouts before designing your weightroom. We have many outstanding articles in BFS magazine on this subject for free download from the archive section of our website, with “The ABCs of Weightroom Design,” practical tips on designing safe and effective weightrooms, which was published in our March/April 2007 issue.

Getting Organized A great way to organize a high school or college weight-training program is to handle it just like any practice for a team sport. Here are eight suggestions to enable you to do just that: 1. Require the same discipline. Athletes should be on time and have the feeling that they are participating in a sport practice in the weightroom. Athletes should be attentive, hustling and team oriented. Let your competition make the mistake of allowing their weight training session to become a social hour. 2. Instill a team-concept approach. Make gains as a team. Take team pride in individual records.

You could have contests between juniors and seniors or between your team and another team. As a coach you must be active, just as you are in a team practice, constantly motivating and teaching. Let your competition make workouts dull and lacking team pride. 3. Organize time and total program efficiently. Wouldn’t it be great if the opposing football coach spent all his practice time on offense and did absolutely nothing with defense or the kicking game? Let your competition work only on weights or concentrate largely on the upper body or on bodybuilding. With the BFS Weightroom design, organization and scheduling are interrelated.

Total Program, you work each important area with just the right amount of time. You work on flexibility and agility every day. You lift three times per week, concentrating on the legs and hips with total-body lifting movements such as the squat and the power clean. You work on speed and plyometric training twice per week in the off-season. You also spend time working on technique skills by position and sport. Setting aside some time (five minutes) on Tuesdays and Thursdays to discuss subjects such as nutrition, rest and strategy is appropriate. You could also offer a short motivational story once a week. 4. Do some activities outside class!

Does a forward in hockey go on the ice and practice with the goalie? Does a quarterback go out and throw with his receivers on their own? Of course! Why not extend this concept to your training program? Let your competition stretch for 15 minutes of the 42-minute physical education class period. Let your competition become frustrated and exclaim: “We can’t get to it. There isn’t enough time!” 5. Give your athletes a chance to excel, a chance to reach their potential. If your team is truly committed to winning, most of them will stretch and do agility drills outside class time. All a coach has to do is test on Tuesdays and Thursdays to verify the athletes’ commitment.

Athletes can also do some plyometric, speed and technique work on their own. Also, having your athletes sign commitment contracts or goal cards can help make success happen. 6. Require disciplined spotting and good technique. A gymnastics coach wouldn’t say, “OK, this group is the B squad. Do anything you want.” Your competition might be that way in the weightroom, but you should always have spotters who encourage their teammates to give their best. Every athlete should be keenly aware of the coaching techniques of every lift and accept the responsibility of being a coach while spotting.

BFS PROGRAM 7. Modify the program intelligently. One of the workouts in the BFS set-rep program calls for five sets of five and another is a 5-4-3-2-1 workout. A 42-minute physical education period isn’t long enough to complete that many sets. Therefore, we recommend doing three sets of five and 5-3-1 for those respective workouts. This modification sacrifices only a small amount of physical development and allows enough time to do it right. This is just one example with one workout system – be creative in whatever program you design for your athletes. 8. Don’t scrimmage! All coaches should do some lifting and show they are able to “walk the talk.”

But there are too many disadvantages to coaches doing their own training during the athletes’ workout time, especially from a liability standpoint. Although athletes respect a coach who keeps in shape, it’s just too difficult to teach and motivate your athletes properly if you’re busy lifting. Finally, at BFS we strongly recommend that coaches take our certification program. Not only will you be taught the proven BFS Total Program, but you will be able to ask our certified clinicians questions about specific challenges that you must deal with. How’s that for a great plan?

The 2011 BFS National Certification was held on January 15 in Salt Lake City, Utah. These events contain both lecture and hands-on teaching methods.

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From BFS Magazine — March/April 2011. Part of the BFS Magazine Archive (1980–2014).