By BFS

In seaon training should be done for two reasons. First, your players will lose a lot of precious strength during season if they don't train. Second, in high school, your players will gain strength for the next sport season. That way football can help basketball or wrestling and they, in turn, can help track or baseball. Everybody helps each other, with the big winner being the athlete himself. Progress not Maintain: 1 hear all the time, "What we want to do isjust maintain our strength." We were placed on this earth to progress not maintain. Your players should be stronger at the end of the season than at the beginning.

If you approach your team with the following concepts, you will make it happen. What Days: You need two training sessions per week. The ideal days for high school football are Saturday morning and Monday. A rule of thumb: Train as soon after the contest as possible, then train again 48-72 hours later. Time of Day: A lot of strengt h coaches argue which is best-before or after practice. My answer is neither. Train in the morning. This gives you time to recuperate so there a re no excuses. Your players may have to get to school 30-40 minutes earlier, workout duringa free period or come in on a Saturday. However, the rewards are great enough to warrant this small sacrifice.

When to Start: I suggest you take 10 to 14 days off from all strength training at the beginning of the season. Here's why: Your athlete is coming into something new. In football he is trying to combat heat, pads, new plays, new team and a new school year. This is a tremendously stressful situation. Add to this, the worry about new school subjects and what the girls look like after a long summer; it's just a lot to hand Ie. Your players will probably lose some weight during this period and aren't going to lift very well. It can be frustrating and discouraging. It is much better to wait 10-14 days, then begin your in-season program with all new lighter workout poundages.

TOM: UPDATE TOM SOUTHALL: BFS Athlete of 1980 First Basic Workout: Box Squats, Towel Benches, Cleans Second Basic Workout: Squats, Benches Vary your sets and reps. These basic workouts should each take between 20 and 40 minutes. Time can, of course, be spent on other exercises. Now, you and your athletes have got to be able to commit to about one hour per week in order to make progress in size and strength during the season with the basic workouts. I can testify with great assurity that progress can be made during the in-season, for it has been done with hundreds upon hundreds of athletes.

Pro Basketball The Ulah Ja7.1.ofthe NBA are using the Program as of October 1981. This is a pioneering effort. The challenges a re great. Whcnyou play 15gamesa mOOlh.youcan see why NBA teams have been reluctant to engagc in an in-season lifting program. However. Head Coach Tom Nissalke feels that basketball is at least 10 years behind football in weight training programs and is solidly behind the concept of an in-season strength program. Strength Coach Greg Shepard has outlined a twice a week lifting program fcaturing squats. box squats. benches. lowel benches. cleans and hang cleans. Each workout after praclice takes 30-40 minutes.

Coach Shepard feels that basketball is no longer a non-contacl spon and you don't have pads and grass to fall on. Weight training is really nceded in basketball to develop and prepare the ligamenls. tendons and muscles for the great physical abuse and demands of an NBA season. Coach Shepard has told the Ja7.1 big men. "We want to make your bodies so awesome that every rebound has your name on it and those pieces of real estate under the boards are ours. At the end of the season. we will jump higher and be stronger with less injuries." How has it worked? It is much too early to draw conclusions. However.

the Jazz completed their winning pre-season with more victories than the previous twO years combined. Their first victory came after lifting thaI same morning! Time will tell. so follow the Jazz this season. (Only 2K victories were recorded last season).

Tom long jumped nearly 24 feet last spring in selling a new State Record The response on Tom Southall'S story has been overwhelming. Tom was the BFS 1980 Athlete of the Year. We thought you would like to know that Tom had another exceptional year. Here are the highlights:

* Voted rorthe2nd year the MVP Award in Football in Colorado * Voted Colorado's Athlete of the Year (All Sports) Given Colorado's most Prestigious Freddy Steinmark Award * Selected for the Stale All Tourney Basketball Team (Scored 15 points per game) * Selected for Colorado's Hert? #1 Award * Led his team to 3rd straight Track Championship * Set State Long Jump Record with a leap or nearly 24 reet Tom is now attending Colorado College and participating in rootball and track. We hope you will all be able to see his story on film. (See page 8)

From BFS Magazine — November/December 1981. Part of the BFS Magazine Archive (1980–2014).