This Football training article was originally published on my ZachEven-Esh.com Blog but I wanted to keep this on our gym blog as well after years of seeing Football players getting threatened by their Coaches.
I’ve been stepping up and voicing my opinion on the overbearing, ego-maniac parents and coaches out there who are hurting their kids with shitty training programs and overall shitty decisions pertaining to training and ultimately, life.
Why do I stand up and voice my opinion like this?
Because young athletes are near and dear to my heart and I’ve experienced the pain of regret thanks to poor, ineffective training methods.
These kids can never win back these lost opportunities. It’s a pain that will haunt them for a lifetime. If anyone knows about the pain of regret it’s definitely me.
The positive thing is that we CAN help these young athletes and we can also help the Coaches who are stuck in the dark ages.
We CAN give them the opportunity to experience greater success.
Are ALL Coaches bad? Heck NO.
But any Coach who threatens a kid with “If I don’t see your face every day in the weight room you won’t be playing this year” is full of himself.
There is no need for young athletes to get pushed around by ego driven Coaches. Coaches also have a responsibility to live the pursuit of excellence. They can learn today more than ever before thanks to the power of the internet. Young athletes will always be the
Here Are Some Thoughts On Football Summer Workouts and How to Avoid These Mistakes That Hold Back the True Potential of High School Athletes.
[youtube width=”640″ height=”360″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yfv-IRCa4ps[/youtube]
These Football Strength & Conditioning Mistakes Apply To ALL Training Methods / Sports / Goals, Even Non Competitive Sport Athletes Should Pay Attention To These Training Tips:
1) Get enough sleep if you want to maximize fat loss, improve lean muscle gains and improve strength gains. Lack of sleep kills your performance. Training at 6 AM is great in the respect that you get the job done, BUT, if you are going to train at 6 AM then it’s lights out by 10 PM.
2) Younger athletes need to eat breakfast AND get in a post workout meal to maximize their training results. They need to regularly feed the machine plenty of quality proteins, healthy fats and moderate carbs. At the D1 level, most teams have protein shakes ready to go with an option to mix their protein with milk or water. When I talk to high school kids they don’t eat after training so they now have to wait until lunch time.
What happens here is they now skip breakfast AND skip the post workout meal which puts their body in a catabolic state, when you need to be in an anabolic state to maximize muscle, strength and performance gains.
[youtube width=”640″ height=”360″]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbDR66H2RCQ[/youtube]
3) You can’t spend 6 days a week in the gym for 2 hrs a pop & expect to maximize results. Instead of training, you will be texting and checking your hair in the mirror every 3 minutes and wasting time to drag these long training sessions from start to finish.
[youtube width=”640″ height=”360″]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DuTt-4njnw[/youtube]
As Arthur Jones said decades ago, You can train hard or you can train long but you can’t do both.
4) In a nut shell, you must train smart AND hard. The incoming freshman need to be on a separate program compared to the experienced lifters on the team.
5) There is NO need for high school athletes to perform 1 Rep Maxes. We can measure their strength by simply tracking their progress and seeing improved technique, acquiring more reps, showing less fatigue from each workout, increasing weight on movements, etc.
[youtube width=”640″ height=”360″]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aR3sCaE1nY[/youtube]
A young athlete who is untrained does not have the mental readiness or the physical coordination to max out on back squats, bench presses and power cleans.
At the end of the day, anyone assuming the “Coach” position must live and breathe the pursuit of excellence. Give these young athletes everything you’ve got and nothing less. Never stop learning and become a die hard student of ALL facets of the game.
If strength & conditioning is not your forte, team up with an expert and bring him in to help you. Serving your ego serves no one else and as a Coach, it’s ALL about serving others. As you serve others the best knowledge, you ultimately rack up more wins.
[youtube width=”640″ height=”360″]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjvB54J9vnI[/youtube]
It’s a simple equation. These kids deserve the best. Nothing less will suffice.
Live The Code
–Z–
