Can a transfer of power take place between the weightroom and athletics?
Editor’s note: Although this article on the origins of Coach Shepard’s training methods was written 18 years ago, the ideas are still relevant today.] t BFS we believe the power clean is essential for athletes who want to achieve their full athletic potential. Moreover, athletes who have attained an elite status of physical development in size, speed and power would rapidly get slower, weaker and less explosive if they were to replace power movement exercises with some Aother type of training. As a college football player in the early 1960s, I did cleans, snatches and jerks. I lifted in Olympic-style weightlifting meets in Austria, but I did it solely to become a better football player.
A nice side benefit was that it was fun, and besides, I liked competition. At this time there were no strength coaches, and strength training in any form was not generally done. I’m sure that in the early 1960s only a handful of football players nationwide did a “quick” lift such as a clean, snatch or similar type of movement. In 1967 while finishing up a master’s degree in exercise physiology at the University of Oregon, I also trained the football team. We did power cleans. At that time, we may have been the only college in America to do power cleans with a football team. One All-American defensive back I trained, Jim “Yazoo” Smith, snapped up 275 pounds on his power clean.
In the late 1960s I trained in 3KRWR1DWH-RQHV:HOOLQJWRQ'DLO\1HZV Brian Doffing is one of the 10 football players from Conway Springs High School in Conway, Kansas, to power clean 300 pounds last season. In 2011 the Cardinals won their seventh state championship since 1998 and had a string of 62 straight wins!
High School for the state championAll-American and get drafted high by Los Angeles during the summers and ship and held them to minus 77 yards. the pros?” coached football and other sports at I believe we were the only football team “Well, sure,” he stammered, “and Sehome High School in Bellingham, who the heck are you?” Washington, during the school year. In – high school or college – doing cleans in the state in 1970. Incidentally, we “I’m the weight training coach for LA I had the opportunity to see how had 50 players who ran the forty in 4.5 football. Put down those wimpy little throwers in track were trained. About to 5.0 seconds. weights and come over here.”
I was con30 guys weighed in at about 275, and 3KRWRFRXUWHV\3DXO$QGHUVRQ<RXWK+RPH fident – I had the secret most of them could run and no competition. To a 4.6 forty. I was amazed. my knowledge Georgia Were they just genetiwas the only other colcally gifted above every lege with a weight coach, pro football player, or and I was pretty sure were they doing something they didn’t clean or train that could be duplicated? like throwers. I chose to think the secret Five months later of reaching one’s athletic Howard weighed 275 potential was by doing pounds and ran a 4.8 power cleans and parallel forty.
That was the fastsquats combined with flexest time of any lineman ibility, speed, jumping and that year. He power agility drills. cleaned 300 pounds, I wasn’t the only one became an All-American looking for an edge. Back and enjoyed a 12-year then there were Russian Paul Anderson won the Olympics in 1956 and that year officially career with the Denver coaches sneaking around clean and jerked 440 pounds. Outside of the sport of weightlifting, Broncos. to see what we were doing. during Anderson’s era few athletes did power cleans.
The following year We were stronger and Boyd Epley was hired as the Nebraska were beating them in the discus and College School Daze strength coach, so then there was shot. They took our training secrets The next year I went to Brigham back to the Soviet Union and then to Young University to earn a doctorate in competition. Boyd had roots in track as a pole vaulter. Not only that, he Eastern Europe. Soon after, we had physical education and exercise physiwas a genius at organization and had our hands full at the Olympic Games ology, and also to become a strength in the 1970s. The US could no longer coach. My first experience was fantastic. great vision.
He organized the NSCA, dominate in these two throwing events. I saw this football player, Paul Howard, and many of his assistants went on to become college and pro strength In the meantime, unfortunately, our working hard with a bunch of bodycoaches. college and pro football teams were building exercises. I asked him what he What has always astounded me is screwing around with Nautilus training was doing. the time it takes people to catch on. principles and machines. Our throw“I’m working out for football,” he It wasn’t until last year [1993] that all ers looked at them and just shook their replied, sweating profusely. Division I football schools had fullheads. “How’d you do last year?”
I asked. When I took the secret of the LA “Okay – All-Conference Honorable time strength coaches. Incidentally, in throwers back to Sehome High School’s Mention on the defensive line, but next the 1980s the NSCA organized clinics track and football programs, the results season they’re switching me to offense.” to travel to Russia and East German countries such as Bulgaria to find out were amazing. That next track season “How big and fast are you?” we had 11 guys who threw the discus “Almost 6-4, 235, and I run a 5.15 the real secret. Want to know what they found out? You have to combine 140 to 180 feet. If you couldn’t throw forty.”
the quick lifts with plyometrics, speed 155 feet, you had to throw on the JV I looked at him dead-serious and flexibility training. It was the same team. In football we played Snohomish and asked, “Do you want to be an BFS PROGRAM 3KRWR'DYLG6WOXND:LVFRQVLQ$WKOHWLF&RPPXQLFDWLRQV 2009 BFS High School Male Athlete of the Year Jared Abbrederis’ hard work with the BFS program at Wautoma High School in Wautoma, Wisconsin, enabled him to help lead his Hornets to a state championship; and after graduation Abbrederis went on to become a starter at the University of Wisconsin. thing our American throwers were doing in the 1960s and still do today.
My heart has always been in coaching high school football, and the joy of turning a program around is deep in my blood. After two years at BYU, I looked for the worst football program around. I found the requisite school in Idaho, and after three highly successful seasons I took on a similar situation in Salt Lake City. I was named football coach of the year in my first season. In every situation we used free weights. Our big lifts were the parallel squat and the power clean. We also produced the shot put state champ. Coaches began asking how in the world a program could turn around so program began as a business in 1977. In 1981 I began another pioneering effort with the Utah Jazz.
At that time and for several years I was the only strength coach in the NBA. Now [in 1994] there are 18 full-time NBA strength coaches and five consultant coaches. The average annual salary is over $50,000. The Jazz have led the NBA the last eight out of nine years as the team with the fewest games missed by players due to injuries. Our best power clean was 300 pounds, achieved by Blue Edwards, who is now a star for the Milwaukee Bucks. Slowly, each year more and more high schools, universities and pros caught on to the secret. Each year I am progressively impressed with our BFS High School All-American teams. This year we had 22 football players power clean 300 or better!
I was also pleasantly surprised at the response when I decided to talk to each PAC-10 strength coach. Everyone does the power clean or a variation and thinks it is a top three – or better – lift to do. Throwers still do extraordinary feats. Stefan Fernholm at his peak was 6-1 ½ and 270 pounds while running a 4.25 forty with a 40-inch non-step vertical jump. Another one of his Swedish teammates, shot put champion Soren Tallhem, high-jumped 7 feet at a bodyweight of 250 pounds. Are they genetic wonders?
My sincere feeling is that every Division 1 university has 10 football players at the same genetic level. They need to train like Stefan and Soren consistently for a few years. That means doing power cleans with flawless technique. I am convinced the power clean can help an athlete achieve a fluid athletic build. This is quite different from a bodybuilder’s physique. A big football lineman who currently concentrates only on benches, squats and bodybuilding exercises with an upper body/lower body workout mentality can make a noticeable improvement in his athletic build by performing power cleans correctly and making them a number-one priority.
This same lineman would improve his playing ability and decrease his risk of injury on the field. The BFS program has changed very little since our business began in 1977. We do the power clean, snatch and jerk press each once per week. The key is not so much what to do anymore but knowing how to get your technique flawless. SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2012 “Be An 11 has changed my life! I WILL BE AN 11!” - Katie Heinlen “The most inspiring night of my life!”
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From BFS Magazine — September/October 2012. Part of the BFS Magazine Archive (1980–2014).
