Off-Season...Summer Workouts



Climb that mountain...


Well, like I promised, I'm going to move on and discuss the actual workouts themselves in this post.  I'd also like to hit on some other things I've done in terms of mini-camp applications, and overall ideas I've had about increasing participation in off-season workouts using competitions. One side note I'd like to add, for those thinking the summer workout is going to immensely increase your team's strength and size, I'm afraid you are greatly misgiven.  In my years as a coach, the longest I've seen a summer program go is 10 weeks.  This is just not enough time to develop a player, especially if it will be the first time they've picked a weight up all year.  Football is year-round now, and so much training.  The teams I have been a part of trained all year, both in season, and out of season.  The summer is just one part of this year-round training.
 So without further adieu....

The Workouts
Now I'm not going to sit here and tell you, that BFS, is the best, or anything like that.  What I'm talking about in this section is the overall mood, tempo and atmosphere your workouts need to have.  Utilize whatever format you want, there's so many out there no, they all must have some merit!  I've done 4 day weeks (2 day upper body, 2 day lower body) as well as 3 day workouts with 1 day of practice, you name it, I've tried it.  I'm going to break down things that should go in to your workout to help make your players want to be there.  Every player knows working out is beneficial for them, however, as stated in an earlier post (found here), the teenager these days have tremendous time constraints put on them by all the activities they have to do around them.  You are in a losing battle if you simply ask them to choose the weight room over their girlfriend, or making the almighty dollar!  This is where you've got to get creative and innovative to keep the weight room and the off-season program lively and intense.  So let's look at what a good workout should have in it to be effective at keeping today's football player attentive.

• Meaningful exercises- This is important because kids nowadays have access to information available at their fingertips.  Don't believe me, tell them something that's hogwash, and see if the next day they don't "sniff" you out.  Young folks today seem to trust adults less and less, so even though they listen to what you say, they are going to try and see if you are for real, or just plain bullshit.  What you put in your workouts, must correlate to getting better on the playing field, not just taking up time.  Your players are already stressed for time, they don't want to sit through a workout that isn't designed to get them better.  Give them what they need and they will want to be there because they can see how the workout is helping them get better on the field.
• Matched partners- This is very important.  You don't want your 5'5" 130 pound Junior Varsity (JV) running back lifting with your 6'3" 250 pound senior offensive tackle (OT)!  Try to partner your players based on ability.  This will give them someone to compare themselves and their achievements to.  Some kids are easily intimidated, so lifting with a partner that is physically superior will become frustrating and can result in the loss of this frustrated player.  Also, your stronger players don't benefit from working out with weaker partners, they need to be pushed too.  Match these players up, irregardless of position, and let them push each other.  Remember, competition is a healthy thing!
• Variation- Workouts that tend to repeat themselves over time, begin to lose the interest of the young mind.  Throw a curve ball in every now and then and have lifting competitions, or running competitions etc.  The sky's the limit when varying up your workouts.  The idea is to keep things in your off-season program from getting stagnant and dull.  I have done any thing from have sprinting, passing, punting, kicking (the latter two being hilarious) competitions, to playing a version of "Bowden Ball" known as 4 on 4.  Things were dull one day last summer in the weight room, and my offensive line (OL) coach decided to do a push up competition.  What the heck, the kids were working upper body right?!  One day out of the schedule doesn't hurt anything, and it keeps the players' interests peaked.  Use your imagination and do this once a week, or do something different everyday at the end of the workout.  Whatever you do, don't let your workouts become dull and repetitive!
• Dynamic- Your workout needs to adapt to the varying levels of player you may have in your weight room/gym/practice field at any one time.  I always tried to mix up times for when JV and varsity lifted, but inevitably you had some kids mixing in.  Try to keep these skill levels separate and different if possible.  The younger player needs more teaching and technique, whereas the older player already has this, and needs less teaching and more individual workout time.  This goes back to having a good staff (found in my first post here) that can allow different coaches to be spread throughout the workout area helping and aiding these different skill sets.  The scheduling of workouts also needs to be dynamic.  Obviously if you can do it, schedule the JV and varsity separate.  I always had JV come in at 3 P.M. and workout until 5, with the varsity guys coming in at 5:30.  This gave the older players time to get off work since most of them had summer jobs.  Sometimes you can't do this.  I have a friend that has the weight room open three times a day.  He opens it a 6 A.M. for the guys going to work who want to work out early, he reopens at 1 P.M., and then has a late session beginning at 5 P.M.  This flexibility allows your players to get to their workouts regardless of what their schedule is.
• Tempo- Workouts should move and flow about in either the weight room, out on the track, or in the gym.  One of the worst things a coach can do is have dead time.  Dead time has the mind wandering and thinking of other places the player could be.  This in turn, leads to doubting why they are there in the first place.  If you keep em' moving, and working, they won't be drifting off to "la-la land" thinking about that new movie, or the new video game that just game out.  Just like in football practice, tempo is completely up to the coach.  I have done "prison style" workouts where coaches have counted every repetition, and I've also allowed the players the freedom to move about on their own.  What I've usually done is explain that the players will have the freedom to do the workouts on their own, as monitored by the staff, however the first sign of loafing and we are doing the prison workout.  I usually had to do a week or two of prison workouts every summer, however that's all it took to get the players back on task!  If you are out on the track or field, set up all drills prior to player arrival, this way there is no down time when you are conditioning or running routes, or agilities.  Keeping the tempo up also ensures that the workout will quickly and smoothly, thereby getting the players back to their daily lives.  Remember, these are NOT college athletes here, they have not devoted their life to the game of football.  Don't make working out a burden, make it a necessary evil, and then add some fun in as you go!



Keep up that tempo!!!



Mini-Camps

For those that are allowed to, mini-camps are a great way to break up the monotony of the summer workout.  I used to  hold a few of these each summer, with a very large one at the end of the summer.  I'm going to share with you what I did, and hopefully you can find some of this quite interesting. 

• Position-specific mini-camp- I have held several of these through the years.  All it is, is simply having a position, or group of players arrive early or stay later and work on position-specific drills.  Early on, when I was a defensive coordinator (DC) and defensive back's (DB's) coach, I had my DB's stay about 15 minutes after every workout session to do footwork.  Other coaches hopped on the bandwagon and did the same thing.  I've also had mini-camps I would do during the day and have all the incoming freshmen come in and participate.  This is an excellent tool at evaluating your JV talent, and it gives an opportunity for the younger players to soak in the offensive and defensive schemes without the fear of messing up with the older kids around.  As with any of this, whatever you do, have a plan and work the plan.  Each mini-camp should have a target goal of what you want to achieve. 
• Conditioning mini-camp- I did this mini camp as it got closer to the end of the off-season.  I wanted to do this to get the players acclimated to the heat and stress put on their bodies by having to perform in the heat.  I've done anything from simple sprints to plyometrics, the content is not the issue here, it's the actual camp itself.  I think this camp really benefited our lineman, who were packing on the weight and lifting heavy, become acclimated to the heat and begin to get used to carry around their new body weight. 
• Team mini-camp- I did this the past 3 years, and it is a TON or work, but well worth it.  I basically had a "lock-in" format where players reported to the school on a Wednesday evening.  They were instructed to bring all the necessary items they would have to have on a camping trip, as they would be living in the gymnasium.  Players would check in from 7 P.M. in the evening to 10 P.M. that night.  Then all the gates would be shut and locked.  No players could have vehicles on campus.  They also could not leave without a parent present (we rarely had anyone leave).  For 3 days we lived together, ate together, and slept together at the high school.  What a team building experience!  To this day, I still have players saying how much they enjoyed, what we called our "Fall Camp".  It wasn't just football either, we had several guest speakers, and business and organizations from around the town prepared the meals.  We also watched movies, and special FCA events as well.  Some of this might not fit where you are at, but for the team building aspect of it, there was nothing better.  I may, in a later post, go into the details of what we did, and how we accomplished it.  Send me email or comments if you'd like to hear more.  Basically, we got 3 good days right before the "official" start of the season to condition and go over the mental portion of the game that seems to get so rushed in the early days of fall camp.

Not everyone can do a mini-camp, or pre-season camp.  However, if you can, I recommend it, if for nothing other than team building.  Check your state rules and regulations regarding this matter and see what you can and can't do.  Whatever you CAN do, will go a long way to helping your team in the fall.

Competition
Creating competition is something that's been thrown about the past few years, with little to no "real" explanation.  Most of us, as football coaches, know what competition is, the problem is how to incorporate into your summer lifting and conditioning programs.  I will share some things I have done, and some things friend and colleagues of mine have done and you can go from there.  The sky's the limit though when it comes to this type of stuff, so use your imagination.

One of the first things I did, when I got my first head coaching job, was to try and establish toughness, and find who my toughest most physical players were.  Well, what better place than on the wrestling mat!  We would pair guys up by position and have them wrestle.  At first, we didn't do it for long, 45 seconds or so, as most guys tired out very quickly.  Wrestling opened up all kinds of information on our players, such as who the alpha-males were, what players were "naturally strong", who was in the best shape etc.  It also doubled as an excellent version of conditioning. 

I also divided the entire team up into off-season teams and we had several competitions that we coined as our "Summer Challenge".  At the end of spring football, we gathered our players in the cafeteria and had a mock draft.  Seniors who had made all their off-season lifting commitments or had been a part of a sport, were selected as captains.  We usually averaged around 10, 10-man teams.  Each team had to have at least 1 freshman, and 1 offensive or defensive lineman.  Then we arranged the picks and put together the rounds.  At the very end, each team also got to draft their coaches as well (this was quite hilarious at times).  Once the teams were assembled we took down the names and established a contact list.  It was the captain's requirement to stay in contact with his team.  The Summer Challenge consisted of teams competing in different games/functions throughout the summer to gain points.  The team with the most points at the end of the summer won.  Usually this consisted of an article in the local newspaper, a T-shirt, first in line at meal time, and first to pick out their equipment for the fall. 

To gain points, the teams were graded on the following items:

• Weight room attendance- each team member, got 1 point for every day they were in the weight room.
• 7 on 7/Lineman Games attendance (will talk more about this later)- each team member got 5 points for attending these events.
• For every pound a team members max went up, they got 1 point, for every pound the max went down, a point was deducted.
• Attendance at camps- team members who attended summer camps and team camps were awarded 10 points for every camp attended.
• 4-on-4 game attendance- We played 2 games per week and players were awarded 1 point for attending and participating in these game.
• Miscellaneous- a team member could be awarded up to 5 additional points for miscellaneous items such as working youth camps, fundraising, or simple things such as helping to inventory equipment etc.

What really made this go, was giving the captains the contact list of their team members.  This allowed the captain to call a guy who was not showing up and put the pressure on him.  Now, instead of a coach calling and bending a player's ear, it was a peer doing so, and the players were more apt to show up.  We saw our average number of players in the weight room soar from just under 25 per day to around 45 per day after implementing our Summer Challenge.  Players who were known for skipping out on weight sessions began to show up and participate.  I cannot tell you the benefits we reaped from doing this, and even though it does take some time and effort, it is well worth it.



Make peer pressure work for you, not against you!!!

 

 One item listed above that was a helped create competition was our 4-on-4 football league.  This was interesting, and took some time to develop, but it really boosted our weight room attendance.  4-on-4 is basically touch football played by teams of 4, the field length being the standard width of a normal football field (53 1/3 yards).  The width of the playing field is 25 yards.  The field is divided in half, and the end zones are standard 10 yard deep endzones.  All of this can easily be marked with cones or pylons.  Players have 3 downs to get across midfield, and then an additional 3 downs to score.  The ball has to be snapped by a center, and you must have one additional player on the LOS at all times.  Once the snap is started the quarterback (QB) has 7 seconds to get the ball off or it is counted as a sack.  Completions cannot be advanced, and the ball is down where the pass was caught.  Interceptions and fumbles are dead where they occur.  There are two 15 minute halves that have running clocks, and a 5 minute halftime.  That's the basics, if you want to learn more about it, email me, and I'll give you what I got.

I also did a 7 on 7 passing league with some teams around our area.  I was hesitant to do this, as we did not have the best facilities in the world, but I'm glad I did.  The 7 on 7 league did 1 of 2 things, it had us competing with other teams, which we all know is better than just competing against yourself, and it allowed us to raise money.  We charged a $200 entry fee, and also had a concession stand open during the games. 



They do it...

Being a former offensive lineman, I didn't want the big guys left out, so we also had lineman games.  The cost of the linemen games were a part of the 7 on 7 fee, so we had quite a crowd around our place one day a week.  The linemen did everything from tire flips, to lifting competitions, sprints, and even a truck pull around the track! 

Like I said in the beginning, use your imagination, and you can see where you end up.  Our weight room attendance more than doubled from the time I took over, until I left, and I attribute it to the items I listed above and in my first post (which can be read here).  You have to make your off-season workouts the place to be, or else you won't get your players in there. 

In my next post, I'm going to talk about 1 of the most important elements of a good summer program, and that is team building.  If you aren't using the summer to build camaraderie amongst your team, you are wasting valuable time.  I hope these have been informative and if you have ideas you have used, post them in the comments section, or email them to me, I will feature a "readers post" section if I can get enough ideas in here.  Keep forging ahead with your off-season programs guys, fall will be here before you know it!




TRUSTFALL!!!!


Duece

The Dog Days of Summer

Well, it's as close to summer as we are going to get, and most of you should have your teams in the weight room and on the field running routes and pushing sleds etc.  One of the age-old problems with the summer off-season programs is attendance.  I constantly hear coaches asking "How can I up my attendance at the weight room?".  Well, that's what this post is for!  I'm going to share some things with you, that I have done in the past to "spice" up the summer off-season. 




Spice it up!!!

Let's not forget, summertime, to the high-schooler, is a time for getting away from the usual grind, hanging out with friends, and for some, a chance to make a little extra money.  For your football player, there are going to be a TON of distractions tugging at his schedule, and he is going to have to make choices.  You are in competition with girls, family vacations, hanging out with friends, and making money.  Tough competition to say the least!  If you know this going in, then you will be able to design an off-season program that will let YOUR weight room be THE place to be in the summer.  For those coaches that have the old stagnant ideas of "they should be here", or "if it meant as much to them as it does to me", please, don't read any further.  If you can't expand and adapt your off-season program to the football player of the 2000's, then it's time to hang it up my friend.  I'm going to list some things I've done to increase the participation in the weight room and in my off-season program.  This is NOT a cookbook on how to get kids to come to the weight room, yet a guide that may open up your mind to some of the items your off-season program may need.

I'm going to spread this one out a bit, talking about the following over the next several posts:

• Facilities
• Staff
• Workouts-Mini Camps
• Competition
• Team Building

In this post I'm going to talk about facilities and staff.  These are two very important elements in any off-season program.  So, here we go!

Facilities
The first item of importance are your facilities.  Not all of us are blessed with a state-of-the art weight room and practice facilities, so please don't roll your eyes when I mention this.  If you want to compete with your football player's girlfriend, then the weight room needs to at least be appealing to the senses.  Now I'm not advocating everyone head to the A.D. right away to rebuild the weight room, believe me, I've been some places where not only would mentioning revamping the weight room get you laughed at, it would even get you fired!  Make due with what you have.  It doesn't cost that much money to touch up paint on the walls and equipment, or even hang some nice posters on the wall.  Make sure the bathrooms work, and there's a secure place for the players to secure their belongings. 

Make your own posters with slogans for the upcoming season, or have photos from previous seasons.  One thing I did, was I had team photos all around the room in our weight room, with the year and record located on the bottom of each picture.  I also had photos of previous players in their college uniforms hung in an area we called the "Wall of Fame".  These little items will go a long way to giving your weight room that "championship builder" look that kids are searching for.  Also, make sure all the equipment is working and in it's proper place.  Nothing is a bigger turn-off than going to do leg curls, but you can't find the pin to adjust the weights.  Your players should NOT have to improvise when lifting or training.  I cannot stress this enough, all this does is put doubt in their minds as to why they are there instead of at the movies or at the beach.



Nice beach!

Another important item is cleanliness.  The weight room should NEVER be dirty!  All weights and workout components should be put up at the end of each session.  This allows players to get in and get their workout done.  This is very important with older players who may also be trying to manage a summer job.  Time is of the essence, so make sure your weight room is not only clean, but ergonomic as well.  Divide up the weight room into common stations if possible.  Don't make your players travel from one side of the weight room to the other, just to go from squats, to power cleans.  This leads to distractions such as socialization, which deter from the players getting their workouts completed. 



This doesn't look productive


The atmosphere in the weight room is of utter importance when attracting your football players.  Young people nowadays love listening to music.  A stereo system in the weight room is a must.  If you don't have the means for a stereo system, see if one of the players will volunteer one.  If not, at the very least let them listen to their IPOD's, as this keeps them in their comfort zone.  A word of caution though, only allow the players to use one earpiece at a time, that way if you have to give instructions quickly, or to warn of danger etc., your comments will be heard.  Allow the players to pick the music, but only if it's clean.  I usually had them tune in to a local radio station if possible, that way I knew the music would be appropriate for the age group.  This is just another simple "comfort" you can add to your weight room to make your players feel more at home when they are there.

If you have outside facilities such as a track or field, and you have workout components for these areas (sleds, parachutes, cones etc.), then make sure these are stored/located in an area that is easily accessible.  Make sure if you have something planned for the track or field that day, you set it up before hand, again, time is of the essence.  The quicker you can get the players on their merry way, the less of a "task" working out becomes. 

If you use indoor facilities, such as a gymnasium, make sure it is picked up and ready to use.  I've rarely used the gym mostly because I've been at places where the basketball coach was a "touch-me-not" with his gym, but if you have this and can use it, by all means do so!  Again, have everything ready, nothing loses momentum more in a workout (or practice for that matter) than players waiting for you to set up drills.




I could use one of these!


Again, I'm not saying go out and tear down the old weight room for a new one, we all know that is out of the budget of 99% of the coaches who may read this.  Never look at what you CAN'T do, always focus on what you CAN do, this will make things a lot easier.  A simple coat of paint on a sled made some former players of mine think we had gotten something new.  I didn't have the heart to tell them, it was just their old sled with new paint on it!  Whatever it takes right!

Staff
You can't do an off-season program by yourself.  That being said, if you think it's difficult getting your players to the weight room in the summer, try getting your staff there!  I usually inform my staff that their stipend covers off-season workouts.  What I do is try and use simple math for the summer time.  I require the players to make 80% of their lifts in the summer, so the coaches should also have a requirement.  What I usually did was take the total number of lifting days and divide it by the amount of people I had on staff.  The most I ever had on staff was 8 (including myself), so we usually had around 33 lifting days, just take 33 and divide by 7 and that was the required amount of days each staff member was to be present.  This usually worked out to be four to five days, so I simply put it as coaches needed to each make a week.  I let them pick their weeks and we went from there.  Some would be there more than that.  I had an offensive line coach that was there almost every day.  What a lifesaver!  My last season as a head coach I was fortunate enough to have raised enough money fundraising that I could pay a 1/2 stipend to one of my assistant coaches and he was our strength and conditioning coach!  This was a 7 week period with 1 week of vacation.  Fancy title for the small amount of resources we had, but it worked.  It also helped that my coach looked like Arnold McMillan (well, not quite that big, but he was huge)!!! 

I also gave perks to the staff members who made the most days.  The one with the most days had the easiest pre-game assignment throughout the season.  The coaches who chose not to show up, or only show up the minimum amount got the tougher jobs.  You'd be surprised how a season of cleaning the visitor's locker room will motivate staff members to do their summer duty!  I've even given out everything from gift certificates to money for staff members who went above and beyond the call of duty in the summertime.  Coaches need to be rewarded too, remember they have families of their own, and use the summertime to vacation and spend time with loved ones.  I also had coaches that worked other jobs, work with your coaches, not against them.  Facilitate their participation, and they will be more motivated when they are working with the players.  Which leads me to my next point.




Even the "big dawgs" make time for family

Staff motivation in the off-season is key.  Most assistant coaches I've had have not been all that "geared up" for off-season lifting and conditioning.  This, to me, is no different than showing up to practice with a poor attitude.  Stress to your staff, that they need to bring their "A" game when it comes to enthusiasm.  Players feed off their coaches, and they can tell when you don't want to be there.  What does it say to a player, who is already wondering why he ditched the movies with his girlfriend, when he sees you looking unmotivated and lackluster?  It tells him you don't care to be there, then why should he?  I guarantee the next day this player is with his chick rather than in the weight room.  Again, make the weight room the place to be, this includes for the coaches.  I've asked coaches to leave that were withdrawn or unenthusiastic.  I figure your getting paid to be here, make that shit up if you have to! 




Coach Boom knows ENTHUSIASM!


Some of this sound harsh, especially to the assistant coach with the young wife and kids, and all this new free time with summer's off, however put the shoe on the other foot.  Especially those aspiring to be a head coach someday, it is your head on the chopping block on Friday nights.  You would want your staff to be at the weight room, so why do any different for the guy you are working for, remember the door swings both ways!

So now that we have facilities and staff taken care of, in the next post I will look in to the work-outs and doing your own mini-camps (if so allowed), and doing things to create competition.  Again, I'm sure there are many more methods than I have, I'm just sharing.  Heck, post some of your ideas in the comments section, let's see what's out there! 

Special shout out to Coach Hoover for helping me "spice" up the ol' blog logo!  Check out his site here to read more on a great passing concept known as levels. 

Later!




Til' we meet again!

Duece