Strength Program Overview

As a coach you always set the tone for whatever aspect you are in charge of. The staff always has to be on the same page with the same message. In the weight room I always gave my staff this strength overview. We would go over it specifically during every new training phase, but I always referred to parts of this overview daily in our strength staff meetings or in our conversation.

Consistency is the key to success. Some say its the magic bean. Consistency always starts with us as coaches. Good days and bad days you must be the same person, as I usually say “don’t flinch”. Consistency is commitment. It’s demanding attention to details all the time, not just when things are going your way.

Below is the strength program overview that I go over. It’s what is expected daily for there to be consistency.

STRENGTH PROGRAM OVERVIEW

 ENTITLED TO NOTHING BUT THE OPPORTUNITY TO WORK YOUR ASS OFF!

·       HOW SERIOUS ARE YOU ABOUT BEING GREAT?

·       HOW SERIOUS ARE YOU ABOUT LEARNING HOW TO BE GREAT?

EMPHASIZE THE FOUNDATION OF THE TOTAL PROGRAM

·       HARD WORK / TOUGHNESS / COMPETITIVE / ACCOUNTABILITY

·       WHAT IS TOUGHNESS – IS MENTAL AND PHYSICAL

DOING THINGS RIGHT ALL THE TIME…

WITH GREAT EFFORT, STRAIN, URGENCY AND NASTINESS.

NO MATTER HOW HARD

·       WE NEED TO UNDERSTAND THESE FOUNDATIONS ARE ON AND OFF THE FIELD

·       YOU HAVE TO HAVE CONSISTENCY IN THE CLASS ROOM, MEETINGS, WEIGHT ROOM,TRAINING ROOM AND PRACTICE.

EMPHASIZE ATTITUDE / EFFORT / ENTHUSIASM

·       IMPROVE AS A PLAYER AND TEAM / BE COACHABLE / HIGH EXPECTATION OF SELF

·       ENTHUSIASM IS NOT FAKE ENERGY.

·       ENTHUSIASM IS EVERYDAY BY STAFF AND LEADERS THAT CARRIES OVER TO THE TEAM ORGANICALLY.

TRAINED EVENTS WITH CONFLICT

·       FORCEFUL ADAPTATION – MAKE A DECISION – FIGHT OR FLIGHT

 ALLOW COACHES AND PLAYERS TO PUSH!

·       HAVE A HUNGER AND CHIP

 BE RELENTLESS IN IMPROVEMENT – GREAT PROGRESSION – EXHAUST ALL RESOURCES

·       YOUR ACTIONS SPEAK SO LOUD I CAN’T HEAR YOU!

 PLAYERS UNDERSTAND WHAT IT IS TO OPERATE AT FULL CAPACITY…USE ALL YOUR POTENTIAL! (WHY DO SOME END UP GREAT AND OTHERS AVERAGE?)

EMPHASIZE POWER OF THE UNIT AND BUILD TEAM FROM MIXED UNITS

SINGLENESS OF PURPOSE

·       KNOW WHAT YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO DO AND DO IT.

·       DO IT UNTIL YOU CAN’T GET IT WRONG. YOU HAVE TO WANT IT

·       BE SPECIAL

DEVELOP PLAYERS FROM ALL CLASS LEVELS. HAVE A GREAT UNDERSTANDING OF TRAINING AGE AND PLAYING AGE. DON’T LET YOUNG PLAYERS WAIT FOR THE OFF SEASON, MAKE YOUR PROGRESS NOW. WE SHOW AND TEACH THE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS.

Remember consistency is the magic bean. If you don’t have consistency you don’t have commitment or attention to detail. As a coach it starts with you.

Sleep Importance for Performance

Sleep is a very important element in life in general. We need it recover, refresh and grow.

There are many ways to help yourself to better sleep. I will go over a few hints to improve that and give you actual information that shows it does affect performance.

1.       It’s essential to get on a sleep schedule. Your body likes regularity and if you go to sleep and wake up on a schedule your body will start to anticipate when it will go to sleep.

2.       You have heard this for a long time… the goal is 8-10 hours of sleep. This takes discipline and planning.

3.       Try to develop a bedtime routine that calms you down. Try to start this 15-30 mins before bed.

4.       Get your bedroom the way you like it. Cool, Dark, Your Bedding, Covers, etc

5.       Try to stay off your phone, computer and tv approx.. an hour before bed. The light from these devices can keep you up and prevent melatonin release that is important for sleep. This takes want and discipline.

6.       Avoid caffeine and alcohol. This could prevent quality sleep and increase resting heart rate. When you sleep you want quality sleep!

I really believe most people and athletes can tell you this information. The difficult part is actually executing it with the discipline needed. I have coached athletes who have really disciplined themselves to get quality sleep and it has paid dividends in their performance.

I have posted sleep study signs in the locker rooms where people can see regularly and have had educated players on it regularly as well with team, group or individual meetings.

What are the results… I was fortunate enough one year to be able to have 30+ players wear sleep bands and get the information tracked. As with any study you find the good and the bad. Some players were compliant and some were not. Either way because of relationships and knowing players you could gather data. The results were what common sense would tell you. The year we did the study the team’s record was 6-6. The weeks of the 6 wins the sleep line was green and above what we dictated as quality sleep with the participants. The weeks of the 6 loses… you guessed it, red line, below what we deemed as quality sleep.

As educators, teachers and coaches we have to continue to do what we do… teach! Be relentless and be honest. Winning, strength gains, high academic performance, concentration, mental health and quality days of on/off the field performance always start with quality sleep. Talk about sleep with your players. You can record it on a board in your meeting room or team room. You will get what you emphasize.

Energy = Production

If you don’t have energy, production will be difficult to sustain.

Using Thick Grips and Hand Manipulation to take stress off the Joints

As a coach I love using thick or fat grips when training. I feel it takes much stress off the elbow and shoulder joint. As an athlete the worst thing I ever wanted them to feel was joint stress or pain because of weight room activity. I had all types of modalities to use log bars, thick bars, ez curl bars (long and short ones!), fat gripz, thick cable pulldown bars (straight and V grip) and my pull-up/chin-up handles were thick too.

Even though now you get more use out of the hands and forearms and maybe not the specific musculature you are intending to work the stress relief on the elbow and shoulder joint will pay dividends as the athlete’s career advances and it’s a really great thing to have strong hands too!!

To even understand this more, take something thin like a pencil or fork handle and hold it out with a straight arm in front of you. Now, take something thicker like the barrel of a baseball bat or something with that thickness. As a result, most likely the thinner object probably was felt more in the elbow joint. The thicker object stress was felt in the hands and forearms. Correct?

Using different types of equipment or hand grips/placements with different athletes will no doubt help aid in getting them stronger faster. Put tension where it is supposed to be… on the muscle. Don’t hinder the joints.

Attack your day!!!

What Nutrition Looks Like

A good friend of mine is very much into training and obviously what conversation always comes up after talking about training is food… or what we all call nutrition because is just sounds better.

This summer we talked a lot about it! Recently he asked what was the food like at the places I coached. My answer was easy…Great! Food is something that always brings people together: weddings, birthdays and holidays are usually always centered around a meal. Every school is different with their meal contracts. Some places let you use outside resources more openly and others only give you a few chances to cater from outside the Universities services. Either way you just have to creative!

If you ate Ruth Chris everyday for 3-4 months you would get sick of it even if you ordered different meals. That’s the challenge getting great tasting quality food that has a high variety. You need to understand most days you eat three meals at the same place! Everywhere I worked we did a fantastic job of keeping things fresh!

I am now going to share with you what weekly menu looks like and things that were done to keep things fresh!

Also the fueling stations are open at all times as well. They are fully stocked with anything you can imagine from salads, sandwiches, protein bars, nuts, trail mix, rice crispy treats, cheez its, granola bars, etc. At these stations there are also memos and instructions on what products are for what athletes.

It is very important to note that usually in the off season and summer I always had group nutrition talks 2 times per month to explain different topics that would benefit the athletes.

To make sure things were fresh we always had theme meals: Disney day, Halloween, Carnival day, Fast and Furious day just to name a few… those themes always came with full decoration and videos. They were always fun days!

This is just a taste of what it is like! The players get Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner Monday -Thursday in season and Friday travel players get all the meals while the Development/Non-Travel squad gets breakfast. However most players also had money on there ID card to use for the rest of the day.

The following are in-season meals for a full day and what dinner is on a Sunday after a victory!

 Breakfast on a Monday

Scrambled and hand boiled eggs

Omelette Station

Crepes with sweet and Savory

   Bacon and chicken sausage

Stuffed Fresh French toast

Baked Diced Potatoes

Grits Station

Breakfast Bar

Toast, bagels,

Assorted  Yogurt  On bar

Cereal, Waffle Station

Fresh fruit

Lunch on a Monday

Hot Roasted turkey sandwiches

With Provolone and bacon

With Relish Tray

Fresh Fruit

Sorbet and Popsicle’s

Dinner on a Monday

Jerk Chicken

Cajun Tilapia

 Pasta with Home made Marinara Sauce

Fried Plantains

Red Beas and Rice

 Vegetable medley

 Chocolate chip

Salad Bar, Fresh Fruits

Sorbet and Popsicle

This is a Sunday Victory Meal

Snow Crab Legs

Braised Beef

Bacon Wrapped Chicken

Au Gratin Potatoes

Wild Rice Pilaf

Grilled Mixed Squash

 Ice Cream

Salad Bar, Fresh Fruits

Sorbet and Popsicle

Training the Head and Neck region! All Sports and Athletes!

I have always trained the head, neck, traps, and the upper back musculature 2-3 times per week.

As research and talk with peer has been ongoing we feel it is necessary to get those muscles as big and strong as possible. The bigger, stronger and more girth there is around that region of the body the more potential there is for force from blows (hits) to the upper body to dissipate.

We track all of our exercises for progression and improvement: based on sets, reps and measurements. Our main tracking modality is the Pendulum 4 way neck machine. We consistently train flexion, extension, lateral movements, and 30 degree nods of the head and neck. This is usually done with 1-2 sets of all 5 exercises in the 8-10 rep range. We use the same weight on 2 lift days per week: 8 reps the first day and 10 reps the second day… then the weight gets bumped up. Following that exercise we typically do heavy shrugs with a 5 x 5 rep scheme followed by a set of 15-20 reps with a little lighter weight.

We really stress the pause of all the movements in the contracted position because that is where muscular tension is the highest. If a rep is not paused it does not count and must be redone. We add in variety to the movement every 5th or 6th session and make our athletes hold the last rep for a 10 count to really add intensity.

As the training of the head and neck musculature increases in weight lifted, mass size should also increase. So we measure our athletes’ necks every 6 six weeks all year round in a relaxed state and a flexed state.

Some people really get wrapped up in bench and squat numbers, we get just as wrapped up in how much weight we can complete on the neck machine, the shrug and what the measurement of our neck is!

I really believe training the head and neck region is one way you can help with the safety of athletes in any sport.  It is a necessity! The bigger and stronger athlete will always have a competitive advantage if their skill set is equal, wouldn’t that be the same for the head and neck too?

2014 Mississippi State Football Off-season

At Mississippi State our main objective within our strength and conditioning program is to give everything we have daily to better prepare our football players in all aspects of the program. Within a year there are many moving parts that we follow and push to get our team ready. I am fortunate to have a great Head Coach, strength staff and assistant football coaches that fully support us and an equally supportive administration. As I move forward I will explain our philosophy, what we expect daily as our standards and how we execute our plan.

First and foremost we are a high energy program, we want to constantly stimulate and motivate our players, which emphasizes five attributes as the foundation of our program:

·       Attitude = high juice(energy), being coachable, we say “attitude” is the only disability in life

·       Effort = single most important aspect of our program, not a talent issue

·       Accountability = held to high standards with consequences (good and bad)

·       Toughness = Heart and Soul of the program (Physical and Mental), doing things right all the time

·       Performance = Improvement, competitive results, subjective and objective

Everything we do is evaluated daily: how we coach, repetition technique and the foundation that makes up our program. With that we put a lot of pressure on our players to take ownership in the total program. We constantly tell our players “produce daily with the end result in mind”. We demand our players to evaluate themselves and ask themselves the following questions daily:

·       Identify your weaknesses, make them stronger

·       Embrace the process, take the coaching and get help

·       Exhaust all resources provided to you

·       Be coachable / don’t train in survival mode

·       Enhance your strengths

·       Have a daily plan of attack in all you do

·       Be willing and forth coming to improve

·       Make the sacrifices to be the best

·       Have great determination for improvement

·       Stay disciplined

·       Give everything you have to up your value to the TEAM

We make sure our players understand that they will be coached very hard. Our players must make a decision each workout, fight or flight. At times in each workout the players are pushed to a limit that some feel they might not be able to push through and we want more. We coach them to drive through that really hard rep or set. To us those are the reps and sets that separate the athletes’ development, physically and mentally. It is basically like backing them in the corner and making them fight their way out. Who will be the ones to “fight” or “flight”? Players who have a high expectation for themselves are the players who thrive in our program. Players that take longer to understand confidence and high expectations needed for success usually take a little more time to mold and develop. We promote an atmosphere of contagious energy and contagious work toughness, while doing things under control with a great attitude.

Our strength program is one that is actually very simple. We focus on strength, power and explosive development while taking a total body comprehensive approach that doesn’t over emphasize or underemphasize any specific part of the body. We use progressive overload with a big emphasis on repetition execution. 

We like to keep things fresh with consistency. We typically train our team in 3-5 groups per day. We usually will have between 15 to 28 players per group, this way we know we can “hands-on” train our players the best way possible. Typically we will have 5-6 players with each one of our full time strength coaches. This ensures that we can individualize exercises and train our players hard. We emphasize Friday’s as “THE BEST FRIDAY’S IN FOOTBALL” where we train the entire team, offense/defense or position groups. On those days we really put the pressure on the players to lead, coach and push what they are taught daily. To us it is the total package of training both mentally and physically.

EXERCISE CHOICE

We prescribe exercises in our program that are easy to perform and easy to track progress. We want our players to perform each exercise at the highest level each rep. We do certain exercises consistently all year to keep great progress records. We use percentages to help guide our players on the weights to use. However, we really coach each set separately through the percentages because percentages are not in any way exact. Each Strength Coach must see each set to make sure the weight is correct for that day. As the sets move forward the coaches are allowed to bump the last set or decrease the last set as needed. At the end of the group or day we meet as a staff to ensure we are eliminating any error in the progression.

Competition

You must be competitive by nature to have success in anything. We make sure we nurture that competitive drive daily in our program. You only have at most 15 opportunities (games) where there is a real outcome to what we do (win or lose). We coach our players daily that “average” is not acceptable, that you have to fight every day to win to have great results on the field and in life after football. So we make sure everyday something is highly competitive. We have our players vote for 10 leadership committee members the first week of school in the winter. The next week we have a draft for teams. The leadership members are given a draft sheet one week prior so they can study their picks, again we want to give as much ownership as possible. The draft sheet has many variables on it that can help or hinder where a player is drafted (accountability history, attitude history, performance history, etc).

Once the draft is complete and the teams are chosen, its game on. We keep daily and weekly points on what is earned or deducted from each team. For example we score: daily attitude - effort, speed school, strength exercise, agilities drills, Best Friday’s in football workouts, community service and any accountability issues. All this is scored on a specific point system that encompasses the entire football program (academics, weight room, nutrition, training room, equipment room, etc)

There is always a winner and a loser. We do everything we can to stimulate and motivate our players to be the best on and off the field. We believe there is a huge carry over to success in both.

THE END RESULT

When a group comes together (players, coaches, staff, administration, community, University) with one common goal to attack every day to be the best, the results are not by accident. We have a common philosophy/standards in our program: to be the best you can be, give relentless effort, do everything with a passion and reach your potential every day. On and off the field, if you do that the results will be there. We always tell our players that there is a direct correlation between success in the classroom and on field success. That’s why it is no coincidence that we had our best football season ever and we also had the highest team GPA ever.  HAIL STATE!