Today I had the pleasure of speaking with Will Fleming of the IYCA. Will and I are both on the Board of Experts for the International Youth Conditioning Association. So when he asked me to share some thoughts on how we train our athletes at St. X, I couldn’t say no. I met Will and his business partner Ryan during the inaugural IYCA Summit a few years ago. I’ve always enjoyed spending time sitting down with them and sharing ideas. They have been extremely successful in their business, Force Fitness and Performance in Bloomington, and are always looking for ways to improve their training systems and coaching knowledge.

Our interview was short, about 20 minutes and to the point. We wanted to share with IYCA members our training model, program design, assessment, freshmen development program and long-term athlete development strategies we use at St. Xavier High School. I hope you enjoy it when it comes out. I’m always excited about the potential…commitment…support it takes to really make a long lasting impact on youth athletics. It’s moments like these, when you get to share what you do with other coaches from around the country, that you can sense the possibilities.

Having a Plan

Having a daily plan is of utmost importance during the playoffs. Expectations are high, days are shorter and there are plenty of distractions. Daily communication with the head coach, athletic trainers, and nutritionist is vital as you make sure everyone is on the same page. Our scheduling starts the day after our last game. We make sure we get a handle on lifting and conditioning days, injured players, hydration strategies and pre-game meals. If everyone is on the same page it makes it easier to make adjustments throughout the week and it helps players feel comfortable.

Mindset

It’s not hard to get hyped up for your first playoff game. Athletes are excited about the possibilities come playoff time. Everyone has a shot at the title, but keeping the right mindset can help your athletes focus on what’s right in front of them. In our program, we like to remind our athlete that tomorrow is never promised. We ask that they give us everything they have as we prepare for our games. No excuses, no regrets.  By keeping the focus on the now, we can eliminate the distractions that are so easily infiltrated into a playoff week.

Attack Problem Areas

Our training program throughout the season is divided into three phases. First five games of the season, second five games of the season and playoffs. During the season, we make sure that we maintain our strength, power and explosiveness through percentage grading and progressive overload on a weekly basis. When we look at our injury reports throughout the week, we always have to make adjustments to individual programs. No team during this part of the season is 100%. So the teams that can get their players as pain free as possible by game time, is going to have the greatest chance at success. Make sure that injured or banged up body parts are attacked first in the workout. For example, if there are shoulder issues, prehab and maintenance work is performed first in the workout. This allows us to maximize specific work in problem area, while still attacking his good shoulder, torso and lower body. Make sure you have a look at the weekly injury report, as you plan your training for the week.

Lower Volume and Higher Intensity

The playoff season is not about gaining strength or breaking down muscle tissue. We focus on improving power and explosiveness every chance we get through systematic progressions in our sets and reps. At this point of the season, we make sure that we have a good grip on the total amount of football-specific fundamental work performed on the field with the coaches. Our job is to maximize our weightroom time and helps us maintain our power output on the field.  How do we do that? We cut our workload in the weightroom by 20% and focus on density training. Our exercise selection is limited to a total of three to four exercises per training session. We like to progress our lifting and plyometric drills to the point where we are complexing the areas necessary to keep improving strength, speed and power.

Just W.I.N

W.I.N is an acronym we use daily in our program. W.I.N stands for what’s important now and it represents how we approach everyday throughout the season. Focus on what you can control on a daily basis and you’ll be surprised at what you can accomplish. Never take your opponent lightly. If you have a plan, follow it diligently and it will help you prioritize any issue that may come up. The right mindset is critical in keeping your team focused. Attacking problem areas and managing your volume and intensity, will allow you to adjust your programming as necessary.

Good luck this week to those who are lucky enough to be part of the playoffs. Bring home a win.

The consistency of your in-season program can determine the success of an entire season. The quote above is a great example of how we approach our in-season training program. You won’t win every game, but your training plan in-season needs to be consistent with the overall goal of building a great athlete and program that is resilient to bumps on the road throughout the season. Developing a consistent program during the season will allow you to make gains in flexibility, speed, strength, power and recovery. Don’t change your program from week to week and don’t deviate from your initial goals. It helps players and coaches understand that the plan is structured, well thought out and geared towards maintaing the levels of performance needed to survive a grueling season.

Success comes to those who are consistent and persistent. Allow your athletes the opportunity to experience a structured program with individual and team components. During the season you will need to make adjustments, but that doesn’t  mean that you make wholesale changes to the program. Use each day as an opportunity to coach your athletes and build consistent systems to monitor strength and weakness of each individual player. Now go forth and win your championship.

Say goodbye to the dreaded long hours spent on cardio pieces. Get ready to lean up, and the best part is that it only takes 15 minutes after your resistance workout! The new wave of cardiovascular exercise is interval training, and it is the most economic way to get results fast. Helgerud et al. found that, “High-aerobic intensity endurance interval training is significantly more effective than performing the same total work at either lactate threshold or at 70% HRmax, in improving VO2max.” In the exercise world, VO2max is simply maximum oxygen uptake and HRmax is max heart rate. The key component to any form of interval training is that it should be done after a resistance training workout in a state where glucose stores are nearly depleted and fat is the prime source for energy. When performing intervals, set your elliptical, recumbent bike, or treadmill to a proper seat height/warm-up speed and perform 30 seconds to a minute. Initially, start your interval program at a 3:1 rest to work ratio. A sample beginner’s program would look like this; 30 seconds of 85%-95% of max heart rate and 90 seconds of rest. As experience with the program advances, the work time goes up along with the rest periods. Perform anywhere from 4-6 work/rest sets which should take anywhere from 10-20 minutes at most, efficiency at its best!

HELGERUD, JAN 1,2; HOYDAL, KJETILL 1; WANG, EIVIND 1; KARLSEN, TRINE 1; BERG, PALR 1; BJERKAAS, MARIUS 1; SIMONSEN, THOMAS 1; HELGESEN, CECILIES 1; HJORTH, NINAL 1; BACH, RAGNHILD 1; HOFF, JAN 1,3 “Aerobic High-Intensity Intervals Improve V[spacing dot above]O2max More Than Moderate Training.” Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. 39(4):665-671, April 2007. April 8, 2008..

by Bob Calvin, MS, RD, CSSD, LD/N, CSCS and Denise Barry, RD
Performance Nutritionists – Athletes Performance

Mild traumatic brain injuries, or as they are more commonly known concussions, have been a hot topic lately within the sporting world. According to the Brain Injury Research Institute, headed by one of the leading researchers in the field, Dr. Julian Bailes, “approximately 1.6-3.8 million sports and recreation related concussions are estimated to occur annually in the United States” (1). As we are coming to learn this is a very serious matter that cannot be taken lightly.

When the brain undergoes a concussive impact or force, neurons, the main functional cells of the brain, are damaged. The neuron’s axon, or tail, undergoes swelling and detachment from soma, or cell body. Leakage of calcium and other chemical messengers into the synaptic space can then occur through damage in the axon’s membrane. This leakage can lead to disruptions in cellular metabolism, glucose utilization, neuron communication and ultimately apoptosis, or cell death (2).

This all sounds very grave, so you might be asking yourself, is there anything that can be done to protect against / minimize damage, or accelerate the healing process? According to the research, the answer may be yes, and may very well lie within that fish oil capsule you have sitting in your medicine cabinet.

Supplementing with omega-3 fatty acids post traumatic brain injury, particularly DHA (the most abundant omega-3 found in the neuronal membrane) has been shown to produce neuroprotective effects in rats. These essential omega-3 fats appear to enhance phospholipid production (the primary constituent of the cellular membrane), nerve growth and circulation, while at the same time combating chronic inflammation (2).

Do not let this information limit your omega-3 supplementation to post injury, as there is also compelling preliminary research in the rat model for supplementing prior to a potential injury. In a recent paper, Mills and colleagues showed that DHA supplementation prior to a traumatic brain injury in rats significantly reduced axonal injury and apoptosis while improving memory function when compared to controls (3).

This preliminary research in the animal model is quite convincing, nevertheless, more studies need to done on the human population to really determine the need and dosing for omega-3s. Currently, the most frequently recommended dose of supplemental omega-3 for overall health is 1-3 total grams of EPA/DHA per day (2). Now go take your fish oil!

References:
Gail Hayes. CDC Announces Updated Information to help Physicians Recognize and Manage Concussions Early. Available at: http://www.cdc.gov/media/pressrel/2007/r070607.htm?s_cid=mediarel_r070607. Accessed October 26, 2009.

Bailes, JE, Mills, JD. Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) Reduces Traumatic Axonal Injury in a Rodent Head Injury Model. Journal of Neurotrauma.

Mills JD, Hadley K, Bailes JE. Dietary supplementation with the omega-3 fatty acid docosahexaenoic acid in traumatic brain injury. Neurosurgery. 2011 Feb;68(2):474-81; discussion 481.

The email always goes something like this:

Coach,  how do you get your administrators, coaches, parents, team and players to committ to your off-season training programs and be disciplned in their approach through months of grueling training?

My simple answer is this: 

Priority # 1
As a strength and conditioning coach at the high school level you should have the support of your Athletic Director. The A.D. must trust that your goals and objectives are in the same order as the athletic departments mission.

Priority # 2
You and the head coaches should be on the same page. You can’t have the committment of your players if the head coach isn’t on the same page as you are with the program. If they don’t understand your program or have questions about your philosophy, educate them every chance you get. We are in an era of sports where every coach understands the benefits of a good off-season and pre-seaon conditioning program. The coach must get the players to understand the benefits, so he can emphasize it’s importance to all of his athletes. Every athlete should understand that there are certain things that must be done to get ready to play at the highest level come In-season. 

Priority # 3
Program Orientation. Every player participating in the training program must understand what is expected of him. The orientation process must include team goals, program objectives, weightroom demeanor, team discipline, exercise descriptions, set and reps schemes, etc. When the athletes walk into the weightroom or are conditioning, they must understand the intensity factor. We have a few rules in our program, but an athlete knows that if they yawn it’s 20 push-ups and if they sit it’s 20 push-ups. Our goal is to increase work capacity and we strive towards this goal on a rep by rep basis for the entire length of a workout. 

Priority # 4
Program Consistency. When dealing with a high school program, you have the opportunity to work with an athlete for four years. This provides you the opportunity to instill certain qualities in your players from a very young age. Hard work, discipline, committment, team work, intensity. I think you get the point. These are the four years of an young athletes greatest gains in height, weight, and strength, so the ability to teach exercise technique, progressive overload, consistency, and patience will allow the athletes to develop according to their individual maturity process. The maturity process for each athlete is different and you must take this into account when developing programs for your teams.

 What if someone said you could eliminate toxins in your body by increasing how much you sweat during workouts? You would probably look at them like they were a few fries short of a Happy Meal, right? During a recent morning workout with some of my executive athletes, this was the topic of conversation for the majority of the session. How can we increase detoxification by way of exercise? Our conversation led to many questions. Here are some of the answers and strategies that we discussed, to help improve workout efficiency and increase core temperature

 We know that exercise provides many benefits to our health, such as burning of glucose, which helps prevent insulin resistance, the building of muscle tissue, and helps us maintain a higher metabolic rate. Another reason exercise is beneficial, is due to the fact, that workout intensity helps the body with sweating, which is the body’s natural way of regulating temperature. When we exercise, small increases in core temperature speed up metabolic processes, which cause toxins stored in fat to be released and broken down. This process is carried out to cool the body during sweating to help with the excretion of toxic materials in the form of oil and water. 

 Since that morning conversation, we have been testing some strategies to increase core temperature and improve time-efficiency during workouts. We have found that simple body-weight exercises such as jumping jacks and jumping rope can increase core temperature and stimulate the cardio-respiratory system with 60 seconds of continuous activity. We took this a bit further and combined some basic strength training exercises, such as push-ups, steps ups, and chin ups and combined them with the ground based interval exercises of jumping rope and jumping jacks to provide a higher stimulus. The combination of these two components in a super-set fashion (performing one exercise after another with 60 seconds rest between sets) has allowed us to create 30-minute efficient workouts, that maintain a higher than normal heart rate in comparison to normal steady state activities such as elliptical work or walking. Our clients sweat more in half the time and appreciate the efficiency of our shorter routines. The shorter more intense workouts have improved cardiovascular fitness, which helps draw out lactic acid build up and can diminish stiff muscles and general fatigue. Remember, when beginning an interval program make sure to alternate burst of intense exercises with easier intervals

Exercise doesn’t have to be long and boring. You can be more efficient during your workouts by combining different forms of exercises into your routine. This will allow you to burn more calories, improve aerobic and anaerobic capacity, keep you from getting bored and minimize the amount of equipment needed. You can take intervals to many levels, but base the intensity on how you feel that day. Make sure you combine good nutrition and a multivitamin mineral that can help replace minerals that are also excreted in our sweat.

In later articles, we will introduce you to the vast world of training that can be done at your bedside when you wake up in the morning, or at night while watching your favorite television show. For now, here is a preview of the cool new ways to train.

• Resistance Bands: Resistance bands are quickly becoming one of the best ways to train due to their variable resistance and the fact that literally hundreds of exercises from strength training to flexibility, can be done with them.

• Body Weight Training: When you think of using your own body weight for training, the most common preconceived notion is that it doesn’t look very difficult. On the contrary — mastering your own body is a key step on the road to using external forces for resistance such as dumbbell or free weight training.

• Plyometric Training: Also known as jump training, plyometrics is a sure way to boost heart rate and metabolism to the max. Once a base strength foundation has been developed, it has been proven that light to moderate jump training can improve tendon, ligament, and muscle strength of the lower leg.

• Physioball Training: Also known as stability ball, this form of training like band training, has gained enormous attention — and for good reason. It is a very simple, cost-effective tool with which you can perform a plethora of exercises.

• Yoga Exercises: By far, the most relaxing form of the above-mentioned training, yoga focuses on total body relaxation and flexibility. A yoga mat is all that is required, and you will be well on your way to waving good-bye to joint pain, thanks to your newly found flexibility.

Here is a sample program: With the basic bounce or alternate step, start with 10 sets of 10 jumps. Increase the number of jumps by 10 per set until you reach 100 jumps nonstop. Gradually work towards 5 to 10 minutes of continuous jumping.