Shifting Football Training Focus

Its getting very close to that time of year where I need to shift the focus of our football training from Off - season mode to Pre - season mode. For the next two months, high school and college players will be a Soar with one goal in mind - becoming the strongest, fastest and most conditioned player on the field.

What does it take to be in peak condition for football camp? Is it as simple as running more? Should you just decrease rest periods when you lift? Only do explosive lifts and abandon heavy lifting? Strongman training? HMMMMM. There is a lot to consider.

Below is a list of considerations that I feel MUST be made when designing a Pre - Season Football training program. All of these concepts are equally important and are listed in no particular order.

1. Continue to train heavy two days per week - 1 upper body and 1 lower body. Avoid lifting to extreme strain as that will heavily tax your CNS and will affect your workouts the rest of the week. Basically we are looking to maintain what we built in the winter and spring.

2. You MUST condition multi - directionally at high speeds. Gassers are hard but that last time I watched a football game players were not making cuts every 53 yards. At Soar we take care of this with position drills set to the rest clock of a football game (20 - 35 sec. rest between sets.).

3. Recover. Foam rolling, mobility and other methods are used to keep the body fresh. We train 5 days per week and rest 2 days per week. Rest means rest, not going out for a run. The Soar model uses Thursdays and Sundays as rest days.

4. Part of recovery involves proper nutrition. Hydrate before, during and after training. Post workout meals or shakes are crucial. At night, eat healthy meals with lean meats, veggies and grains. It is inevitable that you will lose some weight during camp, but don't be the guy who loses 15 lbs before camp. Increased caloric expenditure means increased caloric intake is necessary to maintain your weight.

5. Include variety in your program, especially in your conditioning. Running ladders, gassers or repeated 40s is BORING! Although I agree they need to be done, there are way more effective means of improving conditioning levels while maintaining power that has been built in the off - season. Fridays are specific strength and conditioning days at Soar. What that means is that we perform strength exercises very similar to athletic movements on the field. One Friday we might perform DB squat jumps paired with sled pushes and then a lateral plyometric with a lateral sled drag. The next week we might perform sled starts with shortened rest periods. Some strongman exercises will fall into this day as well.

Remember the magic equation......FORCE = MASS x ACCELERATION.

Stay tuned to the site. In the next few weeks, I will be posting videos and sample programs that we will be using at Soar. Of course, I can't give everything away and there is no substitute for training with us in our facility.