By CJ Richardson, M.Ed., M.A., CSCS, USAW-1
Director of Sports Performance & Assistant Football Coach
Sul Ross State University
Every football strength and conditioning coach has similar goals during the off-season program. No matter whom you ask, the priorities are probably some version of the following:
*Increase muscle mass
*Develop strength and power
*Improve speed, agility and quickness
*Improve flexibility and mobility
There are many methods used to achieve these results, and I do not claim to have all the answers, but what we do has been very successful for us, and hopefully you can take something away to help your program. Our Sports Performance department has three stated goals, which guide everything we do. Our goals are to 1) Improve Overall Athleticism, 2) Build Psychological Toughness, and 3) Educate the Athletes. Our Off-Season program will certainly address the first goal, but without the other two, we will be incomplete in our preparation.
Improve Overall Athleticism
This is obviously where any strength and conditioning coach is going to spend the majority of his/her time. We obsessively research and plan to create the perfect training sessions for our athletes. I start with my “non-negotiables,” or things that absolutely have to be a part of my programs, and then I work out from there. I have found that once those things are in place, creating the rest of the training plan falls into place nicely.
Though each day has its focus, there are four things we are going to do every day: squat, explosive triple extension, upper body pull (vertical or horizontal), and hamstring work. They are not always done under a heavy load (sometimes only body weight), but they will always be there.
We scheduled all of our spring practices to conclude before spring break, which made for a nice split in the spring semester. We had a seven-week training block before spring break, and a six-week block after. During Phase 1, we lifted three days per week, with
conditioning sessions twice per week. After spring break, we moved to lifting four days per week with only one conditioning session. The philosophy here is that we want to maintain speed, agility and quickness, but since practice does not start for another 4-5 months, we want to minimize conditioning to maximize size gains in the weight room.
We break down the focus of each day as follows:
Phase 1:
Monday – Explosive lifts & posterior chain
Tuesday – Long linear sprints & building work capacity
Wednesday – Heavy upper body
Thursday – Change of direction & mental discipline
Friday – Heavy lower body
Phase 2:
Monday – Heavy lower body
Tuesday – Heavy upper body
Wednesday – Acceleration, top speed, change of direction, and/or building work capacity
Thursday – Position-specific auxiliary work and plyometrics
Friday – Medium-Heavy lower body
The spring semester is also a time for trying to build up certain areas of the body that are especially vulnerable to injury. For us, this means focusing heavily on strengthening the neck, shoulders, traps, back, and hamstrings. These areas of the body will receive significant attention during the spring and the summer.
We also emphasize, and at times will explicitly set, the tempo for different exercises. Since eccentric work leads to greater muscle fiber breakdown (and greater potential muscle growth), we seek to maximize our time under tension during this portion of the lift. For example, on our squats we might set a “3-Count Down” tempo, meaning their descent should be about three seconds. When coming up, the goal is always to move the bar as fast as possible. Even if we do not set an explicit tempo for a particular lift, we still emphasize controlling the weight through the eccentric phase.
We get a lot of work done in our sessions. We block off 75 minutes for each session, but usually aim to finish within 60-65 minutes (including the warm-up). During that span, we will have anywhere from 45-55 sets scheduled. We accomplish this not only by emphasizing our general pace in the weight room, but also by utilizing super sets which target separate parts of the body or work opposing muscle groups. For example, in between sets of Bench Press, we will do Band Face Pulls or Goblet Squats. Other times, we will prescribe stretches or mobility work in between sets of core lifts. This allows for more recovery for our heavy multi-joint movements and addresses our goals for improving flexibility and mobility. During Phase 2, when we cut back on our conditioning, we will add a few short agility drills to our warm-ups before we lift, so that we can continue to train these skills.
