Sound methods and solid commitment keep them performing at their best

For the past three years Newsweek magazine has ranked Bentonville High School in Bentonville, Arkansas, as one of the best 1,000 high schools in the country. The school offers 19 advanced placement classes, and the class of 2007 received more than $3 million in scholarships. Bentonville’s Coach PJ Brown commitment to academic excellence is matched by an equally strong emphasis on athletic achievements, especially those made by the school’s superb female athletes. Bentonville High has an incredible athletic program for girls. Last year they won state championships in tennis, track, soccer, cross-country, swimming and diving.

And since one of our own, BFS Clinician PJ Brown, is a coach at Bentonville, we had an insider’s advantage when we set about to uncover the secrets that enable their girls athletic program to shine so brightly.

Secret #1: Unification Because Bentonville is a 7A school competing at the highest levels, there is always a temptation for athletes to focus on one sport year-round, says Brown. But that’s not the case at Bentonville, as many of the girls participate in several sports; for example, the Potter twins, who were profiled in our July/August 2007 issue, won state championships in three sports. “I tell my athletes, after track or cross-country season, to go play basketball or baseball, because they need to enjoy a little bit of a NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2007 break,” says Brown. “They are helping themselves, and the school as well, by participating in other sports.”

Secret #2: Discipline The girls work just as hard as the boys at Bentonville, Brown says, and they often work out at the same time as the boys. “The girls are as focused as you can imagine, and this discipline obviously carries through in competition.”

Secret #3: Sensible Approach to Weight Control Coach Brown also teaches health, and he has adopted a sound and effective approach to weight control with his female athletes. In addition to recommending cardio work, Brown says he does everything he can to provide his athletes with the information they need to make healthy decisions about their nutrition. One story Brown shares with his athletes about the importance of staying lean is about a racing horse that was dominating all its races, often by as many as six lengths. Then the trainers tried an experiment by making the horse wear a six-pound blanket on a race, and it barely won that race.

“If a six-pound blanket can make that much of a difference on a 1,500-pound animal, just think what an extra six pounds of bodyfat can do to the athletic performance of a 120-pound girl.”

Secret #4: Dispelling Myths about Muscle Bulk Brown says that now and then a girl will be reluctant to lift weights for fear of becoming bulky. Besides explaining the hormonal differences between the sexes that prevent the development of large muscles in women, Brown offers the example of a great role model: his sister, Mandy. “Mandy is 5-foot-4, 120 pounds, and she can lift as much as a lot of the guys.”

Secret #5: The Be an 11 Program “Be an 11 is absolutely key to our success,” says Brown. “Every time our girls are in the weightroom, we talk about our intensity, our work ethic and setting goals. We record everything in our log books, and of course the entire log book concept is about breaking records – that is our main focus. Each and every day I tell them to make themselves better: make each lift, each rep, better than the previous one. The results we got last year and the amount of weight these girls were lifting three months into the program as opposed to when we were starting were just amazing.”

Secret #6: Motivation By using log books and striving to achieve personal records every workout, Brown achieves a high level of motivation with his athletes. He uses the BFS standards for the girls, and provides T-shirts with inspirational slogans. He is also planning to hang motivational boards in the weightroom to recognize outstanding strength and conditioning accomplishments among the female athletes.

Secret #7: Empathy Brown treats all athletes equally but understands the special difficulties young women face. “Self-esteem is an evolving issue as our society becomes more complex, diversified and, unfortunately, superficial. Superficial is one of the keys words there, with models and the media telling girls how they are supposed to look and behave, and this pressure affects their self-esteem. This judgmental attitude in our society is one of the ideas we talk about in my health class.”

Secret #8: Coordination and Stability Knee injuries are statistically more common in female athletes compared to males, and Brown has a sound method of addressing this problem, which he believes is often a matter of stability and coordination. For stability, in the weightroom he has his athletes do a lot of single-leg auxiliary exercises, such as lunges and one-legged squats. For coordination, he stresses plyometrics and box jumps. “Most of the time girls who are prone to knee injuries are not strong enough to be able to do what they need to do or are not coordinated; as a result they get off balance, and this creates poor body positions that can make them even more apt to be injured.

But with our program, we’ve had girls who have come in with prior injuries, and they handle it just fine.” As for general advice he would give to those who would like to emulate his success, Coach PJ Brown offers this: “Slow down, be patient, and start building your program one day at a time. Whether it’s integrating new techniques, fundamentals or theories, make it easy for your kids to learn. It just takes time.” Now that’s no secret!

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From BFS Magazine — November/December 2007. Part of the BFS Magazine Archive (1980–2014).