Part One: Give Your Team the Winning Edge

By Dixie Jones, C.S.C.S.

Head Football Coach, Trigg County High School Cadiz, Kentucky Part One: Give Your Team The Winning Edge Coaches in high schools nationwide are searching for a winning edge over their opponents and many have turned to strength development in search of this edge. The coaching staff at Trigg County High School in Cadiz, Kentucky agree this is the place to find the winning edge and have studied and worked very hard to develop the best strength and conditioning program possible for our team. We may lose a game, but we never want to lose because our opponent was physically stronger or more powerful than we were. Trigg Co.

is a school of fewer than 400 students and plays in the tough West Kentucky Conference. Over half the teams on our schedule are larger in number, so we must have a superior program in order ro be physically able to compete. We have given our strength program top priority and insist that all our players be involved. I believe the key to our program is that it is built around solid concepts and not on gimmicks and machines. Too in two or three sports. Here time management becomes many coaches are searching for gimmicks. Gimmicks do even more critical. not win on the football field and they are no better in the The first step to proper time management is to training room.

Basics both on the field and in the weight spend the time necessary to study your sport and room yield the best results. The purpose of this article is determine what its physical requirements are. Then to share some important concepts and tips I have decide what is important and what you must get done learned through study and experience. Adhering to in a limited amount of time. The bottom line is that what these concepts has enabled our football team to place in you, as strength and conditioning coach, stress and the top three 7 years in a row at the state powerlifting teach is what the kids will do. Here are some helpful tips meet. and concepts dealing with time management.

The first important concept deals with Machines vs.

I. Be Sport Specific. Remember your goal is not to Free Weights. The answer is simple; stick to the iron. develop bodybuilders, it is to physically develop Machines come and go as all gimmicks do, but free athletes so they can perform their sport better. Keep this weights are always found in solid programs. I know of in mind as the other concepts are explained. one particular university which has two weight rooms.

IL. Train All Phases. Sports require more than just One is full of machines to impress recruits, the other is a strength. They also require flexibility, speed, and agility. free weight room. This is where the players train.

Find time to work all areas even if you have to sacrifice Machines have their purpose, but it is not sport-strength some weight room time. Flexibility must be done every development. With free weights the athlete balance the weight and use many muscle groups. development can be stressed on days you are not in the Machines isolate, but in a game muscles are not isolated. weightroom. Also include jumping (Plyometrics) in Sports training must be done with free weights. your total program. These improve speed, power and An area of primary concern for high schools is time explosiveness. management-what to do in a limited time frame. College ILL. Train Multi-Joint, Major Muscle Groups.

These routines with 15-20 exercises and 3 or 4 variations of are what athletes use when they participate in a sport. those will make your head spin and are just not practical Those involved in the Trigg County lifting program do for high school athletes to follow. This problem is very few auxiliary or assistance exercises. We give top compounded by the fact that many athletes participate 60 WINNING CONCEPTS Continued from previous page priority to multi-joint exercises that work the major muscle groups and simply do not have time to isolate single joint groups.

E-Z SQUAT:

If your team has time available, be careful with auxiliary exercises. Remember, you are not training body builders, you are training athletes. Isolation exercises promote overtraining by fatiguing the athlete with very little sport benefit. Stick to the multi-joint exercises such as Bench, Incline, Squat, Dead Lift, Pushpress, and Clean. These are our core exercises. Auxiliary exercises we do like are Dips, Neckwork, Leg Curls, StifÒeg Dead Lifts, and Leg Press. tule to follow is to ask — “How will this help my sport?” Ifit has no great value — leave it out. Be sure to take into account exercises that will prevent injuries.

Auxiliary exercises that help strengthen injury prone areas are the ones we like. IV. Power Development. This may be the most important concept. Football is not strength, football is power. Power is a combination of strength and speed. It is the amount of force an athlete can deliver. It is how hard they can hit. It is the ability to run over your opponent and score or stop the ball carrier in his tracks.

Power is developed by strengthening the power zone. The power zone is from the lower back to the knees (low Tore Gustafson doing lunges with the E-Z Squat. Tore is back, quads, hams, glutes). Strength in the power zone is built by squatting correctly and with exercises such as Throw. the Dead Lift. development with explosive speed. To do this use the HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Clean, Push Press, and Box Jumps. Power is best developed with six or fewer reps. Be careful not to set the weight at a level which is too heavy or the speed aspect is gone from the exercise. Cleans are the best.

They involve all joints and total body mass explosiveness. When a player blocks or tackles, he uses his entire body explosively. Power development trains football players for what they must do on the field.

If you really want to stress power development with MORE SAFELY! your team then you should do power quotients. P.Q.’s MORE EASILY! are the most important test result for a football player.

Here is the formula for, calculating a power quotient for MORE WEIGHT! your players: square root of Body Wt. X square root of VJ. By doing this we can determine who on our team can deliver the greatest force. This is what football ia all about.

Il.

Ill.

Train All Phases: Flexibility, Agility, Speed, Plyometrics IV.

V.

E-Z SQUAT: Sizes by body weight SMALL: Under 175 805 West 2400 South Salt Lake City, Utah 84119 Utah-Alaska Coaches Call 801-974-0460 61

From BFS Magazine — Fall 1989. Part of the BFS Magazine Archive (1980–2014).