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PLAN A FUN DAY IN STRENGTH PROGRAM
Incorporate a Fun Day Into Your Strength Program With what seems like a constant stream of bad news coming at players from every direction, it’s important to give them time to have fun with teammates. Program a fun day into your strength and conditioning program to foster team chemistry.
BY DAN GUTTENPLAN, FNF COACHES EDITOR
Rockland Summit High (Mo.) coach Derryan Derrough is the first to admit he doesn’t monitor one aspect of his strength and conditioning program as closely as others.
“The coaches don’t run the dance part,” Derrough said. “We don’t hold a candle to (Z Total Body Fitness instructor Lisa Hale).”
Derrough and his staff gave Hale control of one workout per week this summer, and the fitness instructor mixed in some non-traditional football workouts designed at getting the players out of their comfort zones while making it fun.
“It’s challenging, plus I’m old and they’re young,” Hale said. “I make it look good, so they want to do it too.”
During the first week of workouts in July, Hale led the players in masks through dance classes. During the second phase of the return to play in Missouri, she hosted workouts for groups of up to 10 players. She spread them out in the gym or outside and led core workouts.
“It was hard, but they had fun,” Hale said. “They go home and tell their parents how much fun they have. You’ve got to give them something different with some music. They love it. I gives them a chance to do something different.”
Hale leads workouts for every sports team at Rockland Summit in addition to her private training business. She also teaches a physical education class at the high school once a month.
“I do the fitness that other coaches don’t know about,” Hale said. “I give them core workouts; that’s my speciality.”
■ Z Total Body Fitness (Reston, Mo.) owner Lisa Hale poses with Rockland Summit players.
When the groups were limited to 10 players at once, Hale led three workout sessions per day. The players would then rotate between track workouts and lifting in the weight room. She occasionally took the athletes out to the stadium to do a bleacher workout.
“It’s not your typical idea of stadium sprints,” Hale said. “We don’t do much running up and down the steps. We’re getting into poses that work the core.”
In the midst of a pandemic, Hale believes it is imperative to build some fun into the strength and conditioning program. Athletes often lose motivation when their minds drift to the uncertainty of whether there will be a fall football season. By taking them out of their comfort zones and allowing them to laugh together, they’re more likely to stay in the moment.
“It’s been different, but we’re doing the best we can,” Hale said. “We break them into sessions, and my session is the fun one. The kids go home and tell their parents. Their parents say, ‘They never talk to me, but they keep telling me how much fun they’re having.’”
Alternate Football Workouts
HALE’S GOAL IS TO
take athletes out of their respective comfort zones and make it fun during an otherwise uncertain time.
Here are some of the workouts she leads for the Rockland Summit football team.
■ Cardio + Pump:
Total body high intensity workout consists of cardio drills using kick bags, gloves, hit pads and kick pads.
Performing jabs, punches, hooks, uppercuts and kicks to burn fat and tone muscles..
■ ZUMBA: This class
fuses hypnotic
Latin rhythms and easy-to-follow moves to create a high energy, total body, dance based workout. Zumba is a great mix of
Latin flavor and international beats designed to tone your body from head to toe.
■ HIIT Express: Short
intense workout using full body to improve athletic capacity and conditioning. Great calorie and fat burner.
■ Circuit Challenge:
Only class that has body challenging exercises to push yourself to the limit with battle ropes, bosu, sled push, agility ladder, big ball throws, climb the rope and hang from gymnastic rings and so much more.
Host a Virtual Combine for Your Players The spring and summer offered very few -- if any -- opportunities for high school prospects to get recruited by college coaches. With the NCAA dead period restricting high players from making campus visits, high school coaches have to get creative to make sure their players get a fair shake.
As many as a dozen players from Hoover High (Ala.) typically commit to offers from college coaches each spring, but this spring was understandably slower than most.
Hoover recruiting coordinator Durrell Fuqua, a former University of Alabama defensive back, felt he had to take the recruiting process into his own hands.
“My main thinking was our kids weren’t able to get to camps, and coaches couldn’t get to our campus like they usually do,” Fuqua said. “We put together a virtual combine. I got some ideas from several people, and ran with it.”
Hoover created a virtual combine on July 17 to measure and time their players in various typical combine events, such as bench press, broad jump and 40-yard-dash. Nearly 55 seniors and juniors took advantage of the platform that could help earn them a college scholarship.
Fuqua offered these tips to coaches considering hosting virtual combines:
1Set up stations. “We’re blessed to have a lot of coaches, but you could ask for parent volunteers. Put each coach in a specific area. That way, you can break into smaller groups and maintain your distance.”
2Video record everything. “We had a corner run a 4.3, but coaches want to verify it. One coach at each station has to be responsible for recording each player’s performance, even if you’re just measuring them.”
3Post the clips to HUDL. “We recorded each clip and loaded to the iCloud. Then I went back and loaded to HUDL and tagged each individual kid in his clips. I put it all together, it took a lot of time and effort.”
4Send out the clips to recruiters. “You can create a highlight reel from the combine for each player. Then you can send it out to recruiters. One of our guys got an offer from Air Force right after our combine. It’s been beneficial, and I think more will come out of it.”
5Be willing to put in the time. “It took hours and hours, but you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do for the kids. Once I finally got it all completed and tagged all of the files, I knew it would make a big difference.”
6Get some help. “The combine is just one piece of it. You need the coaches to run a drill at each station, but you also need some help with the grunt work. We uploaded over 1,000 clips to HUDL and tagged each kid on every clip. Luckily, two coaches helped me with that.”
Combine Events
Fuqua and the Hoover staff set up the following stations at the virtual combine.
HEIGHT/WEIGHT:
College coaches don’t want to take your word for it. Provide video of the measurements.
WING SPAN: Some
college coaches set minimum requirements for wing span for each position.
HAND SIZE: Again,
this is an important metric for many college recruiters.
FLEXIBILITY DRILLS:
Record video of players in which they show flexibility in their hips and knees.
REPS ON BENCH:
Players to decide between 135 lbs., 185 lbs., and 225 lbs., and do as many reps as possible.
40-YARD DASH: A
Hoover corner ran a 4.3 and subsequently received an offer from Air Force.
PRO AGILITY: This
includes cone drills and shuttle runs.
BROAD JUMP/TRIPLE BROAD JUMP: Some
coaches want to see leaping ability.
INDIVIDUAL WORK WITH POSITION COACH: Example:
