What a great read from Adam Stoyanoff at West Catholic High School, take notes on this one. Adam thanks for all you do for this profession. - Rick Court
This year will mark my 18th year Coaching and the 23rd school I’ve been blessed to be a part of. Coming into a new school, there’s a checklist of fundamental criteria that I’ll typically use when piecing a program together.
With the following points, please understand, they’re a general guideline. Even if they’re in the same conference, make no mistake, every high school is extremely different. To look at one program and compare it directly to another is foolish.
1. Choose the Safest Exercises for the Environment and Athletes
I’ll use Olympic lifts as an example. I personally enjoy the lifts and think they’re of great value, however, there’s a specific time, place, and group of trainees they may be most appropriate for. Understand that there are uncontrollable constraints in place that should lead our decision making. How many kids do we have? What is their training age? What their biological age? What is their emotional IQ or maturity level?
If we’re looking for a an efficiently taught or loaded triple extension movement, there’re plenty of options other than the Olympic lift. It’s our job to choose the safest and most effective one for our environment.
2. Choose Exercises That We Can Teach
We need to be able to teach an exercise before we implement it. Lately, I’ve been making a strong case for the argument of; if we as coaches don’t train the exercise, we shouldn’t be teaching it.
The bottom line is, we need to have coaching cues that will elicit the responses we need. Furthermore, a cue and its delivery may work for one kid but not remotely for another.
We must be fluent in the cues and tones we’re using.
3. Select Exercises That We Have the Resources For
If we have 30 kids, 20 minutes, and two squat racks, we’re probably not squatting. Experience, patience, and creativity will really need to come into play in these situations.
Weight room resources are not just about the equipment. It’s the logistics or workout-flow of an hour, a day, a week, a month, or a year of working out. Time management is a key resource.
4. Use Exercises with an Adequate Rate of Loading
It’s imperative to incorporate a systematic progression for exercises, but we’ll never have the luxury of planning the perfect year of periodization. Sometimes we have a month or two to get kids as strong as we can, safely.
Looking past the idea of hinging versus squatting, if we must choose a lower body pressing movement for a one-month block, and our resources include the trap-bar deadlift or a squat, it may be in our kids’ best interest to use the trap-bar.
I’ll choose the exercise that I can overload in minimal time. In my experience, we’ve been able to put more weight on the trap bar in minimal time versus working on the squat, which may be more technically demanding.
5. Choose Exercises or Derivatives That Can Be Performed Year-Round
If the group can’t do the exercise or a derivative in-season, it may not make sense to spend any time with it.
6. Choose Exercises That We Can Quantify Progress With
We’re not going to record every single set, rep, or weight, but we’re going to choose a handful of structural or core exercises that we can measure our progress with and be goal-oriented with.
At his point in my career, I’m a big fan of the squat, trap-bar, strict overhead press, strict chin-up, and bench press.
7. Use Purposeful Exercises
Of course, occasionally, we must choose a sort-of filler exercise in order to keep the traffic flow moving, but even then, we need to be looking into that exercise toolbox and do our best to choose something that has a good, relative purpose for the objective in mind.
Everything we do has a purpose, if we execute it the correct way, we’ll fulfill the purpose.
8. Use Exercises That Have Regression Options
Let’s not leave our kids in a helpless situation. While at a school in Boston, I asked about 100 elementary school kids if they’ve ever been told to do a push-up by a teacher, coach, or parent. Most of them raised their hand.
I then asked the same group if they had been taught how to do a push-up before being asked to perform one and again most of them raised their hand. We did a push-up, and it was clear that the majority of them weren’t strong enough to perform a proper one.
All exercises should be taught before they are performed, and regressions are required in almost every case. Every lift has regression options.
Like I mentioned earlier, we’re big into the strict chin-up. If our kid can’t do 1 strict rep, they have a specific program they follow in order to get there. Every small step is noticed, acknowledged, and celebrated. Now we can enjoy the process, instead of leaving them with no recipe for success.
Be prepared with a system of regression exercises for kids who can’t perform the minimal amount of weight that the majority is using. The first thing we bought when I got to West Catholic, is a 15lb aluminum barbell for each rack. Now all of our kids can be a part of a fundamental and inclusive program. Nobody is left out.
Please remember that there isn’t a one-size-fits-all training protocol, and these are just some general suggestions based on a few successes and countless failures over my career. While building our strength and conditioning program, we can’t go wrong by beginning with weight that’s seemingly too light and then always be available for the kids…keep the doors open.