By Vern Gambetta
Vern Gambetta is the President of Gambetta Sports Training Systems in Sarasota, Fla., and the former Director of Conditioning for the Chicago White Sox. He is a frequent contributor to Coaching Management and can be reached through his Web site, at www.gambetta.com.
Coaching Management, 9.8, November 2001, http://www.momentummedia.com/articles/cm/cm0908/buildblocks.htm
Building a strength-training program for a football team can be a daunting task, but beyond being a vital component to any winning program, it also offers some unique opportunities for coaches willing to look beyond tradition. There is no question that traditional strength training is the cornerstone of football conditioning. Despite this, it is imperative to understand that preparing for football requires developing athletic fitness that encompasses a range of physical capacities that must be carefully blended with traditional strength training to achieve optimum performance.
In our world of instant information we are often confused by a plethora of buzzwords, fads, myths, misconceptions, half-truths, and lies all fed by slick marketing campaigns. When it comes to strength training, most of these marketing campaigns are focused on what successful teams do, but we must remember that simply because the number-one team in the country does something a certain way, that does not mean it is appropriate for your program. First, some teams win in spite of what they do for conditioning, not because of it. The more-talented team will usually win, even if the less-talented team is better trained. Second, different teams require different conditioning programs. The program used by a power running team is not going to be the best one for a speedy passing team, even if it was used by a national champion.
In this article, I will give you some guidelines to make your football strength-training program more effective. The goal is simple: to design a program that develops strength that the athlete can use on the field, not one that prepares him for a weight-lifting or a body-building contest.
Meeting the Demands
The first step when designing a strength-training program for football is to understand the physical demands of the sport. That may not be as obvious as it sounds, because many assumptions about the game are made without a sound foundation in good training methodology. In technical terms, football is an intermittent sprint sport characterized by intense bouts of work-- very short bursts of three to five seconds--followed by rest periods at least three to five times as long. This means preparing the body for maximum effort for short periods of time, repeated again and again.
It's equally important to remember that football is a collision sport. From a strength-training perspective, this means that the emphasis should be on power with a certain amount of bulk building to provide protection from the impact of hitting and being hit.
The second step is to understand the demands of the various positions within the game. These positions have different demands in terms of movement patterns, speed, strength, stamina, and so on. These different demands should be reflected in the design of specific aspects of the strength-training program. A common mistake is to treat all positions the same. A quarterback should have a different strength-training program than an offensive or defensive lineman.
The next step is to understand the qualities each player brings to his individual position. Some players are naturally strong, so they acquire strength quickly and maintain it with less work. Conversely, others must emphasize strength training to a greater extent. An effective strength-training program must take this into account.
While all these variables seem to make conditioning a team more complicated, in fact, they make it easier. Rather than designing one workout program that tries to meet everyone's varied needs, you can have each player focus on what he needs. This allows you to incorporate more variety and versatility to enhance the improvement of each player within the context of the team.
The key to effective implementation is grouping by position so that the strength training reflects the demands of the position. However, the group composition must remain dynamic so it can change to meet individual needs. For example, a player could be in one group for speed development work and a different group for strength training in order to capitalize on his strengths or work on his weaknesses.
Pay close attention to the details away from the weightroom that can affect the strength-training program. What kind of work are the players doing in practice that could have an impact on what you are doing in strength training? Is there a stretch of difficult games ahead that may leave players banged up? You should always gauge the severity of recent and upcoming practices, both in terms of duration and amount of contact, in order to adjust the volume or intensity of the strength training. It's important to be as organized, systematic, and methodical with the strength and conditioning training as the rest of the program.
Part of the organizational demand is developing a good system of accountability so that both players and coaches can gauge progress. Measure, time, and record every workout possible. Make sure that the players get feedback on their results and that the coaching staff and athletic trainers are also kept appraised of training results. Keep detailed records of attendance at all workouts as well as compliance and effort during the workouts.
Across the Spectrum
Strength training means more than just lifting weights. When I use the term, I am referring to body-weight exercises, core training, plyometric training, free-weight training, machine training, power lifting, and Olympic lifting. It might be helpful to look at everything under the umbrella of strength training as a spectrum. Activities from across the spectrum can be combined to get players specifically strong for their positions while addressing their individual weaknesses.
Any good football strength-training program must be based on sound training principles. The guiding principles for beginning a strength-training program are:
Train movements not muscles. Remember, muscles don't make plays, players do through their movements. Although muscles power these movements, the movements are the end goal, not bigger muscles. So training should focus on the movements a player will need to make, not on building bigger muscles.
Train core strength before extremity strength. Strength must be built from the inside out. The strongest walls are worthless in a house built on a weak foundation. And the strongest arms will be of little use to a player who has not developed his core; that is, his hips, abdomen, and lower back. Without a stable and strong core, extremity work will be limited in scope and carry greater risks of injury.
Train body weight before external resistance. Staying with the basics, working against one's own body weight with exercises such as push-ups, pull-ups, and sit-ups, should always precede working with additional outside weight. This is true both in daily workouts, where body weight exercises will prepare tendons, ligaments, and muscles for external loads, and long-term planning, where body-weight exercises work as the foundation for future activities.
Based on these principles, a sound football strength-training program should include the following essential characteristics:
• The workouts must incorporate multiple joints and muscles in the exercises. No football movements require the use of just one muscle or joint, so exercises should follow suit.
• Exercises should take place in positions similar to what the body will see on the field. Balance is a key part of training and should be incorporated whenever possible.
• Core strength and stability is the cornerstone of the program.
A Matter of Principles
A sound strength-training program should be based on principles. How the principles are applied gives detail to specific programs for specific positions and individuals. It is important to understand how programs differ based on the objectives. It is possible for the exercises to be the same, but manipulation of sets, repetitions, rest, and load can significantly change the training effect.
So first you must determine the principles that will guide your program. You can begin by asking yourself a series of questions: What do you hope to achieve with a strength-training program? What are your goals? What do want the player to look like at the end of the program? Who needs to gain muscle mass? Who needs to lose weight? These are all important considerations.
Once you've established your team goals, you must also factor in individual qualities. Carefully consider growth and development factors. Has the athlete gone through puberty? Biological and chronological age are often quite different. Is the athlete an early or a late developer? Cognitive and emotional development should also be considered, as they are quite important in the ability to learn exercises and routines as well as accept coaching. Also consider genetic endowment. That does not demand a DNA test, just look at the rest of the family. If they are all thin and small boned, chances are the player will struggle to put on muscle mass. This will help in developing realistic goals for each player.
There must also be some thought given to the athletic lifespan progression. As the player matures and increases in training age, the amount of work done with actual weight training will gradually increase. Remember, based on the demands of football as a collision sport, the athlete must eventually do some heavy lifting. This cannot be minimized or the player will not succeed.
Take a proactive approach by paying attention to the little things. Carefully evaluate posture and injury history. Any significant postural defects must be addressed with remedial programs before moving any further into a training program. If not addressed then, these deficiencies will only get worse and limit the players' ability later on in their careers.
Once you've established your guidelines, it's time to start choosing exercises using the following criteria:
• Recognize that the game is not played on two feet; virtually every movement in football is played off one foot onto the other. Select and design your exercises accordingly.
• Use as many joints as possible to produce force; conversely, use as many joints as possible to reduce force.
• Use gravity and ground-reaction forces. Wherever possible, exercises should be performed standing.
• Include rotational movement wherever possible.
• Work over the greatest range of motion that is possible to control. This will be especially beneficial to flexibility.
• Incorporate speed of movement that is safe and the player can control.
The traditional evaluation of a strength-training program has been the ability to lift more weight on weight-training exercises or more repetitions on body-weight exercises. In an absolute sense, that is still valid, but I think we need to go beyond that and carefully observe the carryover to the field. This is much more subjective, but it should be the ultimate goal of any strength-training program.
Closely observe if the athlete's ability to start and stop has improved. Is he able to get of the ball quicker? Is he able to makes cuts he couldn't make before? Has there been a reduction in injuries? If the players are improved, then your strength and conditioning program is probably working.
SIDEBAR
Designing the Program
Selecting Exercises: Exercises should be spread among the following categories:
•Balance and stability
•Core exercise
•Lower extremity
•Upper extremity
•Total-body exercise/combination movements
•Multiple jump exercises (plyometric exercises)
•Multiple throw exercises (ballistic throwing exercises)
Number of Exercises: It is best to carefully choose and limit the number of exercises. Keep a focus to the workout. Determine the essential need-to-do exercises. Too many exercises will dilute the training effect.
Sets/Reps: For body-weight exercises, a range of 10 to 20 reps is necessary to force adaptation. For weight training, the traditional paradigm of sets and reps is still very valid: higher reps for hypertrophy development or increased bulk, lower reps with multiple sets for neural development.
Mode of Resistance: Depending on the objective and the phase of the program, the following resistance modes can all be used. It is best to mix the modes of training on a regular basis.
Body weight
Stretch cord
Medicine ball
Power ball
Dumbbells
Barbell
Progression: Move from body-weight exercises to external-resistance exercises both within the workout and through the training year. Within each workout perform balance and stability work and core work first before heavy lifting. Start with simple exercises, and then progress to more complex movements. The key to progression is mastery. Do not allow the athlete to proceed further into the program until basic exercises have been mastered. If this is not done, then there is a higher risk of injury.
Frequency: There are several alternatives, all of which work quite well depending on the objective. The two basic choices are:
1. Total Body--Full workouts on alternating days (For example Mon./Wed./Fri. or Tue./Thu./Sat.
2. Split Routine--Training specific areas on consecutive days (for example, Mon./Thu., Legs & Lower Body; Tues./Fri., Upper Body
Duration: Generally, it is best to keep the entire strength-training session in the time range of one hour to 90 minutes. The closer to one hour, the more optimum the results
Time of the Training Year: Obviously, the greatest emphasis on strength training should be in the off-season and the preseason. But it is important to develop a manageable program that can be continued throughout the season or the strength gains acquired in the off-season will be rapidly lost.