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If you have 10 different strength coaches speak on their strength training programs you will get 10 different philosophies. Some will be similar, but there will always be differences. In this article, I want to share with you some of the things that I feel are important in developing a strength program for athletes.
Here are the basic or foundational components that I use. If I have an advanced and more experienced athlete, I will use a more aggressive system. When I have a beginner, I will use a simpler program that fits their needs. The goal is to get results in a safe and effective manner.
1. 1-2 week adjustment period so the athlete can learn the basics of our strength program. I want them to learn the following:
a. Exercise execution
b. Tempo
c. Rest periods
d. The meaning of sets and reps
e. How to superset or tri-set exercises
2. Movement pattern- I want all the athletes to understand the concepts of how the body should move during basic movement patterns. If they understand this they can apply these movements to all other exercises within that movement
pattern.
a. Squatting or knee bending pattern- Once the athletes understand the body positions and the application of force in a basic body weight squat, they can use that knowledge to transfer into the other various patterns of squatting.
b. Hip bending- When the athletes understand the lumbo-pelvic movement they can apply it to all other hip bending patterns.
c. Vertical pulling and horizontal pulling- It is important that the athletes understand the set-up of the shoulders and how the shoulders blades interact with the arm movements and the entire shoulder girdle. This can be applied to other pulling movements
d. Horizontal pushing and vertical pushing- Same applies with these movements of the upper body. The shoulders need to be set so they can stabilize during any pushing action.
e. Rotational core based movement- In this pattern we want the athletes to understand how to stabilize the core to allow the extremities to move. We also want to teach the involvement of the hips, thoracic spine, and legs in a more dynamic movement
pattern.
3. Super setting or tri-setting- This is all about time efficiency. Our system at the Lee Taft Speed Academy is set up where many tasks get accomplished in one hour. So the strength training program is based on paring up not competing exercises in a superset or tri-set format. This allows for rest for each exercise but keeps the athletes from sitting and wasting valuable time.
4. Record keeping- Even though this can be a struggle with younger athletes, we do try to get all our athletes to record information about the weight they lift and how they felt on that particular day. This gives them valuable feedback for the next day of training as well as in the moment.
5. The concept of quality versus quantity. Strength training is about injury prevention first and performance second. I can make the athletes very strong, but if that strength is not in alignment with safety then it does not fit in our system. By teaching the athletes to brace properly before and during each repetition, by teaching them to breathe correctly, and by maximizing the execution of the lift we get great results with quality work over quantity.
6. Explosive training- I think everyone needs to learn to be explosive. We are explosive human beings. I don’t think the explosive training needs to be dangerous or over emphasized; it is just a part of a solid strength training program. We start our athletes off learning how to jump and land; and through medicine balls we introduce them to our explosive training. We advance some athletes to Olympic style training if needed and others to more general jump training. The goal is to excite the nervous system so it can adapt to explosive environments.
7. Core training- Our core training is based on rotational and deceleration training for the most part. We want the athletes to learn to control the core when rotating as well as how to slow down rotation. We also add explosive core training by the use of the m-ball throws. Because so much of our training is ground based in a standing position, the core is always being trained.
8. Adaptation training- We always mix up the sets and reps of the athletes to get a different training effect which is important for growth. We will change the exercises roughly every four weeks. The newer athletes will change less frequently compared to the more experienced, but for the most part we use the four week period as a time to change.
There are many other aspects to our strength training program but the eight items I mentioned about are the key components that I feel can make any program successful.
A program will adjust for many reason such as college programs, strength program without speed and agility in the same training hour, age of athletes, number of months athletes will be involved and so on. The key for us is to keep the basic strength training concepts in the foundation of the program and make the needed changes to match the situation at hand.
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