My strength and conditioning plans have varied throughout the 3 years I have been a head coach. Each year we have incrementally increased it by 2 weeks, starting at a 6 week program to this years 10 week program. This hasn’t been done out of punishment or scientific method. Our high school season does not begin until after Thanksgiving, so we have a lot of downtime between the beginning of the school year to the start of tryouts. Still being in the start of our 10 week program I can’t speak in hindsight yet, however my ideal program would be at 8 weeks. With all of that being considered our focus is on a few things that is articulated in our first day of workouts:
We want to prioritize form, communication, and an appropriate level of physical/mental challenges based on individual experience and physical development.
Everything we do our participants – use that word because at this point no one is technically on the team – will partner up with someone to do workouts. Coaching staff will demonstrate all of the lifts first with points of emphasis on the fundamentals of the lift or exercise. It is then emphasized that anyone with experience or understanding of what our expectations are for the specific workout is additionally responsible for keeping their teammates accountable. Of course our staff is walking around to correct any mistakes or to make any adjustments, but we want to instill the habit even in guys that may not be with us come Winter to teach what they know to their teammate. We only go 3x a week with the 3rd day being limited only to our “Jumping Program,” which is literally a short series of jumping routines (e.g. single leg, tucks, footwork box jumps, etc.). Our other two days of workouts are split between traditional weight lifting with power conditioning and H.I.I.T. exercises (primarily body weight or resistance training) with speed/agility training.
By no means do I consider myself an expert in this area. Unfortunately, at the high school you are not commonly afforded the luxury of hiring a strength/conditioning coach. For us we have a great staff member that is in the process of becoming certified who we entrust to establish a strong standard for mechanics and workout protocol. That being said it is why the first two weeks of our program safety, communication, and accountability is paramount to understanding our routine. If interested, I have attached a rough sketch (5 weeks) of our Fall workouts. These are subject to change daily because of availability of the facilities, so sometimes we have to get creative. I will offer this recommendation to look into XL Athlete. It is a great resource that I have used that is overwhelming with the information, drill database, and manuals that can be of assistance to shaping your own program. It is not so much I am looking for our guys to take major gains in their physical strength versus starting to either introduce a workout regimen or the intangibles that we will reinforce come Winter. Hope this helps & good luck in preparation for the season.
Coach's Climb 