The BFS Program for All Sports
Editor's Note: We recommend that all power sports use the BFS Core Lifts. Auxiliary exercises are then selected by the individual coach for a particular sport. It is unwise to have four or five vastly different weight training programs in one high school. Coaches in high school must share the same athletes for the different sports. For this reason, it is wiser to be united in philosophy. Unity builds harmony and trust between athletes and the various coaches. Coach Dave Steen from Klamath Union High School has written the following information about how training in the BFS Coordinated United Way has effected their sports program.
Weight Training Helps You Throw Harder!
Making Victory Sweet!!
The BFS Program For ALL Sports Klamath Union High School Klamath Falls, Oregon By Coach Dave Steen Oregon. Eugene Athletic of Eugene, Oregon, added a great deal by designing our weight room. Our program has changed significantly over the past four years. We began with 15-20 athletes in one class early in the mornings - 7:00 to be exact - with a couple of bars, a universal and some leg stations. We lifted everyday but Wednesday. On that day the emphasis was on running, stretching, and testing. We also started lifting two days a week in our Physical Education classes.
The freshmen would lift on Tuesday and Thursday, and on the other three days the PE classes would participate in regular activities. Four years later we have not only enlarged our room three times but have also increased our enrollment to about 400 students. Our program organization has not changed that much in these 4 years, except for our first period class or early bird class. In this class we work with 60 students, mostly our athletes. They are in the weight class 5 days a week. The class starts at 7:45 a.m. with 5 minutes running, then we stretch for another 5 minutes.
The class is then divided into two groups - A & B, Group A going to the weight room, Group B staying in the gym and doing the following: Two days out of the week they do agilities, dot drill, vertical jump, rope jump and plyometrics, the other two days they do an activity such as volleyball, basketball, or some other type of team activity. We switch after 25 minutes. Our weight room activities consist of the following: Monday and Tuesday - bench and squats, cleans and incline. We work in groups of 2 or 3 - If you do bench and squats on Monday, you do incline and cleans on Tuesday. On Wednesday and Thursday you would do box squats, towel bench, dead lift and incline.
We follow the BFS Program 3x3, 5x5, 54321 Special Week thru the whole year. Our PE classes do 3 exercises 2 days a week - Tuesday, bench squats, cleans; and Thursday, box squats, incline and dead lift. Freshmen do not do dead lift, they do cleans and hang cleans. On Friday we do something very special with our 1st period class. For the first 30 minutes we do a complete stretch then the last 20 minutes we do a body massage technique. I believe one of the most positive things being done is all the coaches working together in getting their athletes into the weight room; our football, basketball, cross country, track, wrestling and baseball players all lift!!!
(The program is adjusted somewhat for our distance runners, otherwise everyone does power lifting.) We are not a large school and we compete against some of the larger schools in the State of Oregon. We feel we must lift to stay competitive. In the following information you will see we haven't done too badly since starting the BFS Program. Yours for better strength, Dave Steen continued on Page 5 The United Way Klamath Falls Style What has happened since the Weight Program started. Note: This is also after the schools were divided and we lost half our enrollment.
FOOTBALL 1981 6-4 State Playoffs 1982 7-4 State Playoffs, won 1st round-lost 2nd 1983 8-3 State Playoffs, won 1st round-lost 2nd 1983 Southern Oregon Coach of the Year BASKETBALL (BOYS) 1981 1982 1983 1984 State Playoffs, 1 All League State Playoffs, 1 All League SOC Champs, State Playoffs, 2 All League State Playoffs, 2 All League 1984 Southern Oregon Coach of the Year BASEBALL 1981 State Playoffs, 3 All League - 1 MVP of League 1982 Conf. Champs, State Playoffs, 1 All State - 1 MVP of League. 1983 State Champs, 2 All State - 1 MVP of League, Plus MVP of State, 1 2nd Team All State Weight Training Helps You Hit Harder!
TRACK (BOYS) 1981 3.21-1600 relay 1982-83 3rd in Conf., 5th in State State Champion 1500-3000, 2nd in State Pole Vault 48.9-400 Individual 1984 State Champion 3000, 2nd-1500, 5th-800 (GIRLS) 1981-82 2nd in District, State Champ-3000 1983 3rd in Conf., State Champ-3000 1984 4th-1500, 4th-shot put, 6th-800, 4:01 Mile relay CROSS COUNTRY 1981 1982 1983 Girl 7th in State Girl 3rd in State, Boy 2nd in State State Boy Champ, State Girl Champ Girls Team 6th in State, Boy & Girl West Regional Champ, Boy 2nd in Nation (Kinney Run) Girl 4th in State, Girls 1st in West Reg.
(Kinney Run), Girl 8th in National The Football Program As all of you coaches know, there are many variables in any successful program. In football, one big variable is numbers. You need players and lots of them, and like many of you we aren't blessed with either alot of great athletes nor great numbers. The boys we do have are competitive and have spent many hours in the weight room to improve the abilities they do have. They have improved their speed, strength, and body mass, which helps us make up for lack of numbers.
In football our boys have to go both ways, and we have a very low injury factor and we feel our weight training program has helped us keep the injuries down to a low level, because when you lose a player due to an injury, he's lost on both sides of the ball. But one big key to the success of our total program is Making Victory Sweet!! the cooperation we get among the coaches. Too many programs short-change their players by disrupting their workouts. They put the athletes in a tug-of-war. The coaches tell him to lift, don't lift, lift, depending on the season.
We've found by lifting in the morning a player's performance is not affected because there's sufficient recovery time between lifting and practice. In this way players lift year round, and everyone benefits. Rolla Callaghan, Head Football Coach The Basketball Program During the 1983-84 basketball season, Klamath Union Varsity Basketball started four players 6'0" and one player 6'1". The team ended the season 20-5 and participated well in the state playoffs.
A main reason the team achieved this goal and the accomplishments in previous years was becontinued next page The United Way Klamath Falls Style The Baseball Program Our weight program has helped our baseball program in that we have few injuries, quicker bats, and stronger arms. We power lift throughout the whole year with a few specialty exercises added in. Weights are a necessity for us because we do not have a lot of depth in our program. We have also found that with some added strength to our average ball players that they are able to help us more than they normally would. We had a 1st Team All State Pitcher and Most Valuable Player of the State power clean 220.
Our 1st Team All State 2nd Baseman, 6'6", power cleaned 235 and our 2nd Team All State Shortstop power cleaned 235. Dave Steen, Baseball Coach We All Practice Technique While Weight Training!
Making Victory So Sweet'! cause of the extensive weight program K. U. has. Players of lesser size can compete against taller players because they have the strength and jumping ability to do so. Quickness and agility also increased through this weight program. The weight program has definitely been an asset to our basketball program. Barry Gottula, Basketball Coach The division of our school in the fall of 1979 (at that time we were about 2200 in size) into two schools which were both about 1100, left many people wondering how we would be able to compete in a conference dominated by several super powers. We have, in our conference, several of the larger schools in the state.
The split left us with one of the smaller schools in the state. (We are 64th of 83 in size in our state AAA classification.) But much to everyone's surprise - not as much to ours - we have done as well and perhaps better than before. I feel this is due to our concentration in othE:r areas. Working on getting other kids out, more work by the kids, more effort in our coaching staffs and more backing by our administration all contributed for a combined effort. The biggest reason may well be the influence of our weight program. It has helped our students become the best they can become. Led by Dave Steen, we have one of the best equipped and efficiently run weight programs around.
People are always impressed when they enter the weight room and see the business like manner in which our kids proceed with their programs. This program, I feel, has been to a large extent responsible for our becoming a highly respected track and cross country program around the state. I have seen kids who were good (for example, a 1:59 half miler drop to a 1:54 in one year after beginning a program) become even better. This has shown up in many athletes. But perhaps the most encouraging thing about our program is that it is not only for athletes, but for anyone who wants to improve their strength and self image.
This, to me, is even more impressive and speaks even more positively for our program. Ken Coffman, Track and Cross Country Coach We wish to thank Coach Steen and his fellow coaches for this article. We hope their successes have provided inspiration and information on having one coordinated program for all athletes as the only sensible way to go. Good luck to the Klamath Union High School athletes and coaches.
From BFS Magazine — March/April 1985. Part of the BFS Magazine Archive (1980–2014).
