Structuring your Offseason Program Part 1: Stability and Endurance

Posted June 25, 2012 by Robert Pomazak
Under  • Guest Post  • Coaching & Athletics

The offseason is a chance for athletes to recover physically and psychologically and to work on improving their performance. The structure of your offseason football workouts plays a big role in reaching your strength goals.

The main goal of an offseason football program is to increase the body’s ability to stabilize and remain in a controlled posture. As the season progresses, muscular imbalances can occur from injuries or from continually cutting in the same direction. This can lead to weakness in underused areas of the body and injury.

Using the GoPro Camera as a Teaching Tool

Posted June 25, 2012 by Justin MacDonald
Under  • Guest Post  • Coaching & Athletics

We’re always looking for tools to take our program to the next level. Last year we started incorporating the GoPro camera into spring and summer practices and our 7 on 7 tournaments and it’s had a huge impact. It’s become an invaluable teaching tool for us.

The GoPro camera is lightweight and not intrusive, so it doesn’t interfere with what we’re trying to do. It gives us a glimpse into what the athlete is thinking when he’s out there, and when we’re done, we come away with a comprehensive video that lets us know where we need to work.

Spice Up Lower Body Training Days with a Circuit

Posted June 18, 2012 by Robert Taylor
Under  • Guest Post  • Coaching & Athletics

It’s easy to get bored with the same offseason workout. We like to switch things up by going through a circuit. Sometimes we’ll use them at the beginning of a workout for warm-up, or sometimes at the end to add an element of competitiveness.

If your warm-up has gotten stale, here are some exercises to throw in the mix for lower body strength training days:

Choosing the Right Summer Football Camp

Posted May 30, 2012 by Will Hewlett
Under  • Guest Post  • Coaching & Athletics

Summer may be the most strategic time of the year for a football player. During the summer break, they’re able to focus more, so a summer football camp can make a tremendous impact.

But how do you know if it’s the right camp?

Selecting a summer camp is a greater challenge every year as options grow. A quick web search provides overwhelming choices.

Let’s break down what to look for and what to avoid:

Incorporating a Foam Roller into Your Warm-up

Posted May 23, 2012 by Robert Taylor
Under  • Guest Post  • Coaching & Athletics

Incorporating a foam roller into your workout can be a valuable tool for your athletes. Using a foam roller during your warm-up can help increase blood flow and calorie burn, and decrease the chance of injury. By providing pressure to the restricted regions of the body, you can help eliminate pain and restore motion.

If you’re not sure how to use the roller, here is a sequence to get you started:

Tips from the pros: Train like the Detroit Lions (Video)

Posted May 01, 2012 by Robert Taylor
Under  • Guest Post  • Coaching & Athletics

Weight and resistance training programs can vary from team to team, but no matter which weight room you walk into, there are some lifts that you’ll see consistently. The deadlift, power shrug, and back squat have become commonplace, and if you are going to use them, it is important that you pay attention to the details.

Ted Rath from the Detroit Lions shares his thoughts on the deadlift drops, power shrug, a different twist on the back squat, and what his athletes use to warm up before hitting the platform:

How to Add Strength, Explosive Power, and Competition to Your Offseason Program

Posted April 25, 2012 by Robert Pomazak
Under  • Guest Post  • Coaching & Athletics

Picking the right exercises for your offseason football program can often be a difficult task. While time, facilities, and equipment will often dictate what you can and cannot do, there are a few lifts that every program can take advantage of. 

Add these five exercises to your offseason football program to add strength, explosive power, and competition into your sessions:

Six Ways to Maximize Your Time in the Weight Room

Posted April 12, 2012 by Robert Pomazak
Under  • Guest Post  • Coaching & Athletics

High school football coaches across the country know that the last day of the school year signifies the beginning of the summer football camp season. From the months of June to August, head coaches must figure out how to install their entire offense, defense, and special teams.

Often times, the last aspect to receive attention is the teams’ strength and conditioning program. When hours and minutes are at a premium, it can be difficult to dedicate major percentages of practice time to the weight room. Here are some simple planning tips to maximize your time in the weight room during offseason football workouts:

Achieving the Mindset of a Champion

Posted April 11, 2012 by Alan Stein
Under  • Guest Post

Mental toughness can be one of the most difficult skills to hone as an athlete and to teach as a coach. It’s easy for players to let things like opponents, fans, or errors get in their head and hinder their performance for the rest of the game. As a coach, it’s essential to help your athletes move on from mistakes in order to win games. Graham Betchart, a performance coach who specializes in mental skills training, outlines a few elements that make up the mindset of a champion.

These are great to give to your athletes before the season starts or to even have posted on the wall in the locker room.

Avoiding Common No-Huddle Mistakes

Posted March 26, 2012 by Sam Nichols
Under  • Guest Post

Installing a no-huddle offense isn’t an easy process. Most of it is learned through trial and error. Here are some problems we encountered along the way—hopefully this will help you avoid making the same mistakes we did:

Weight Room Workouts Made Interesting with Pandora Radio

Posted February 27, 2012 by Mike "Mav" Aveni
Under  • Guest Post  • Coaching & Athletics  • Technology

Keeping our athletes engaged in the weight room and making it fun for them is a challenge we face every year. Music has always been one of the ways to do this, but putting together a playlist of high-energy music with clean lyrics can be time consuming. We can task our athletes with putting something together, but their music isn’t always school appropriate.

This year, we’ve starting using Pandora Radio for music, and it’s become an awesome hands-off way to bring music into the weight room. The best thing is that it’s free, which fits into my coaching budget nicely.

Streamline the Player Grading Process

Posted February 09, 2012 by Sam Nichols
Under  • Tips & Tricks  • Guest Post  • Coaching & Athletics

When we started using Hudl three years ago, we were focused on both learning the basics and also diving in deeper to use the software to its full potential.

What we found was that not only does it meet our needs as a video analysis tool but also the solution to another common problem that we, as well as other coaches, were facing:

How can I use Hudl to grade my players practice or game performance?

This problem is easily solved using Hudl’s custom columns and views options. Here is a quick step-by-step introduction on how we used it as a staff to grade our players last year:

Teach Your Players About In-Season Volume and Recovery

Posted February 08, 2012 by Alan Stein
Under  • Tips & Tricks  • Guest Post  • Coaching & Athletics

I recently did an informal experiment with my athletes. I had them wear a Nike+ Sportswatch GPS during games to see how far they were running. What I found was that they were running upwards of six miles per game. If you consider we play 2-3 games per week from December to late March, our athletes are racking up marathon-type weekly distance. This doesn’t include practice and off-season workouts.

Excessive volume during the season will begin to cause issues if proper steps aren’t taken. Here are some ways to avoid burnout and injury:

Three Keys to Improving Your Vertical

Posted February 02, 2012 by Colin Reay
Under  • Guest Post

Improved vertical is something that athletes strive for in their careers. The ability to jump higher than your opponent takes discipline and practice. Just like any other aspect of a sport, it won’t come without putting in the time and effort.

There are three things that are key to improving your vertical: form, strength, and flexibility.