Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Off - Season Football Training - Anaylzing the Individual

I have written before that football is in a class by itself when it comes to off - season training. Click here to take a look back.

For the kid who does not play any other competitive sports, his off - season is going to be 6 - 7 months long. Pre - season begins in June and consists of team conditioning, 7 on 7 tournaments and camps. Full practices begin in the first week of August. Today is November 30, so we are actually closer to the beginning of last season then we are to the beginning of next season.

This is the time of year most of my high school clients begin to call and tell me they are ready to come back into the gym. Each kid has there own needs, their own schedule and their own injury history. I always begin with some form of GPP (General Physical Preparedness) with each kid. Now, in the year round scheme of training, anything that is done outside of the football field is GPP. Lifting, sprinting, stretching and cone agility are all forms of GPP for football. Going to a QB coach, a receiver camp or working on DB drills is Sport Specific Training. What I have kids do at Soar in the first few weeks of off - season training is essentially preparing the body for more rigorous forms of GPP. I hope that makes sense.

Here is what our GPP workouts consist of:

Mobility circuits - basically our warm up
Isometric holds (push up position, split squats, chin up holds)
Bodyweight exercises
Lots of single leg exercises
KB swings and get ups
Sled walks and drags
Shoulder and hip rehab/prehab

FYI - most of this stuff is part of the year round program as well

This is what you will not see most of my football athletes doing in December:

Sprints and agility
Plyometrics (jumps)
Anything that involves them being under a heavy bar (squats, bench)
Position drills


How long does the GPP process take? It depends on the kid and a few other factors. Here are some examples of different football players that will walk through my doors in the next few weeks.

1. Senior - going on to play in college. Since they will be training with me into the summer, we will spend at least 1 month of GPP and then slowly progress into more intense workouts. The exception is the few kids who will report early to their college team. In this instance, I have to speed up the process to ensure they are ready for rigorous winter workouts.

2. Multi - sport athlete. Some of my football guys will go right into basketball or wrestling. In this case, we just continue with our in - season model of lifting. I have to limit volume with them to ensure that they are fresh for their winter sports. I also have some kids who play spring sports like lacrosse. Since these kids will go right into pre-season conditioning in January, I need to progress them faster. We usually spend 2 weeks with GPP and then begin to progress into more intense workouts.

3. Underclassman - football only. There are a ton of different ways I can take the training for this kind of kid. If it is a kid who starts or even plays both ways, we will spend 1 month with the GPP process before we start any kind of intense training. We will also take time to rehab any type of injury that I am comfortable working with. Unfortunately, some of these guys will go right back to lifting heavy at school within weeks of the end of the season. In this case, I still focus on GPP and spend a little time making sure their lifting technique is solid.

But, what if the kid sits the bench? If you don't play much or at all, your body is more than likely healthy. Also, if you sit the bench, you more than likely need to get bigger, faster and stronger. This is the one instance in which I will progress a football only kid faster into off - season training. These kids usually have to lift at school at some point, so my window to work with them exclusively will close quickly. We will spend a lot of time working on the "money" lifts like squats, dead lifts and bench so they will have the technique down when they begin doing it out of my supervision.


It all comes down to doing the right thing for each individual kid. Trying to fit square pegs into round holes is a recipe for injury and poor performance.

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