A look back at how BFS can put an entire athletic program on the path to success

All high school athletes, male and female, will benefit from a total athletic training program. This photo was taken in 2005 during a BFS clinic at Amherst High School in Amherst, Wisconsin.

Unity and Organization:

Your Winning Secrets A look back at how BFS can put an entire athletic program on the path to success (Editor’s note: Although this article on the origins of Coach Shepard’s training methods was written 23 years ago, the ideas are still relevant today.) The most successful athletic training programs at the high school level have exceptional unity and organization. When these important qualities are missing, nothing kills success quicker. The worst thing is for every sport and every coach to do their own strength and conditioning program while following totally opposite concepts and philosophies. Sometimes the egos of various head coaches clash so strongly that their athletes’

loyalties become confused, making it difficult for everyone to come together to win. If all sports at the same school were to adopt the BFS system, all the athletes would do basically the same program throughout all the sport seasons. The advantages? Teaching time would decrease, many hassles would MARCH/APRIL 2013 be eliminated, everybody would be pulling for one another and the winning percentage of all sports at the school would dramatically improve.

I’ve been to many high schools where the football coach does one program primarily with free weights and the girls basketball coach does a little strength training and uses assured that all athletes are performing an extremely sound program all year round. Speed and plyometric training should be done twice a week in the off-season and whenever possible during the in-season. All coaches should teach the same program. I saw a high school basketball coach having his 1. Require the same discipline as in a football practice. It’s not social hour. 2. Instill a team concept approach. Make gains as a team. Have contests between offense and defense or between juniors and seniors.

Coaches should constantly motivate and coach.

If all sports at the same school were to adopt the BFS system, all the athletes would do basically the same program throughout all the sport seasons. machines, saying, “My girls are intimidated by free weights.” The baseball coach tells his players, “Hey, weights will screw you up,” and doesn’t have them stretch, run or do plyometrics. The multisport athletes at such a school are now in a real fix. Their loyalties are torn. The baseball coach has unwittingly given them a very real excuse not to work hard or reach towards their potential. It’s a tragic story told over and over again.

So it’s no big surprise that after we set up a unified program for a school at a BFS clinic, the school does an immediate turnaround. The BFS Dot Drill is a tremendous way to warm up, and the BFS 1-2-3-4 Flexibility Program makes terrific sense for all sports at junior high schools and high schools. By having all the coaches at your school adopt these two phases of the BFS program, you’ll gain three great advantages. First, your athletic programs will have unity and continuity. Second, you’ll save time at the beginning of each session; because everyone knows what to do, you’ll just continue the program. You can even have the veterans teach the new athletes.

Third, each coach can be team run lines. He yelled encouragement: “Work, work, don’t give up! Go! Go!” They worked very hard, but every one of his varsity players was running with terrible technique: heads going back and forth, arms rotating from side to side, toes not pointed straight, etc. They worked hard, but not smart. If the coach had spent just a little time coaching sprinting techniques, the athletes could have run those lines faster and with less energy. If all coaches learned the simple BFS Speed and Plyometric Program, all athletes would experience continuity from sport season to sport season.

The most important BFS concept in organization is to run the total athletic strength and condition program just like you’d run a practice. Would a football coach read a newspaper while his team prepared for a football game? Obviously not. Then why do it that way in the weightroom? A coach should coach 100 percent of the time; in the weightroom the coach should demand the same things he would demand on the field. If you follow these guidelines in the weightroom, you’ll give your athletes advantages to win on the playing field:

3. Organize time and the total program efficiently. Work all parts of the program. Don’t leave out speed work or flexibility in order to do a few more auxiliary lifts. 4. You can assign homework. If you only have 45 minutes or less of actual workout time available, have your athletes do some things outside class, such as agility and flexibility training. 5. Don’t scrimmage or lift with your athletes. It’s just too difficult to teach and motivate properly if you’re busy all the time. All athletes, regardless of their sport, should do the same program, and all coaches should teach the same philosophy. Organization and unity – it’s a winning combination.

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From BFS Magazine — March/April 2013. Part of the BFS Magazine Archive (1980–2014).