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Strength & Conditioning for footballers

The US is a big place, there's plenty of garbage training going on their too.

Football scouting combines have become a major part of what is essentially a player market in the US because of the vastly different development models they have for football.

Here, the ARU, AFL, SA and NRL control and govern their sports from national team to grass roots level. School competitions are minor except for some private school examples but they never supercede the club based game completely. In the US its totally different. High School College and Pro exist as autonomous levels and entities, their is some cooperation but largely they are independent.

The scouting combines exist as an objective measure of the players. Competitions (High School and College) are so vast that many players never actually play each other, but may be competing for a position at the next level. The combines became a way of putting the players through a battery of tests away from the game and adding that to the decision making process.

The rules have changed recently in terms of college scouting being allowed at high school combines so they have changed in importance a little. Say what you like about how good a measure they are of playing ability but they aren't going anywhere anytime soon so players better get good at them. Its something that I have had to have a lot to do with.
 
The Dolphins broke up last night, there back on the 12th of Jan.

Tonight, on their first night off, 11 of them came to lift weights.

One boy, Christian Ongarello, deadlifted 200kg weighing around 83kg

I'm impressed with the level of commitment from a dozen or so players.
 
PowerBuilder said:
Pardon my ignorance....what's a combine?
Click to expand...

It's an event that the NFL puts on to fill four days of programming on their TV network and keep the sport in the media during the off season. It has also become an industry for preparation coaches who work with athletes for 6-12 weeks. The coaches become superstars for taking the most genetically gifted of the genetically gifted athletes and shave 0.2 seconds off their 40 yard time and increase their vertical jump by a couple of inches. No one seems to realize that these players start their combine prep immediately after the season, where they are getting beaten up week in week out, some for 4 years. If their times didn't drop with the removal of training and games something would seriously be amiss.

I was recently talking to a coach from one of, if not the biggest, combine prep facilities and he would openly acknowledge the absurdness of the situation, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

Interesting fact: their are 7 position groupings and 7 tests conducted at the combine. Of the 49 position and test combinations, only ONE has any correlation with success in the NFL. In other words for the months of media hype, only 2% of what goes on at the combine is worth a damn when assessing players for careers in the NFL.
 
PTC said:
The Dolphins broke up last night, there back on the 12th of Jan.

Tonight, on their first night off, 11 of them came to lift weights.

One boy, Christian Ongarello, deadlifted 200kg weighing around 83kg

I'm impressed with the level of commitment from a dozen or so players.
Click to expand...

I need to consider the logistics of coaching novice lifters as it is something I want to do in the future when I am a PE teacher at high school.

Based on your experiences training footballers, what are your thoughts on coach to lifter ratio. I have heard 1:4 and up to 1:8 from others. When you are coaching stuff like the squat, deadlift and cleans how many lifters are you prepared to coach and what do you find to be optimal?
 
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Not going to answer for Markos but in my experience I can train upto 10-12 lifters if they have an idea of what they are doing - if not then Id go to about 4-5 lifters at a time....and even then if some are not getting it I will try and spend 1 on 1 time with them.

I trained a rugby development squad at the start of the year and some days was training about 12-13 and it was fine...but saying that they had acouple years lifting under there belt.
 
PowerSports said:
Not going to answer for Markos but in my experience I can train upto 10-12 lifters if they have an idea of what they are doing - if not then Id go to about 4-5 lifters at a time....and even then if some are not getting it I will try and spend 1 on 1 time with them.

I trained a rugby development squad at the start of the year and some days was training about 12-13 and it was fine...but saying that they had acouple years lifting under there belt.
Click to expand...

I figured as much, I suppose I could train a couple small groups of beginners and then when they no longer need as close attention I could consolidate them into a larger group.
 
PTC said:
The Dolphins broke up last night, there back on the 12th of Jan.

Tonight, on their first night off, 11 of them came to lift weights.

I'm impressed with the level of commitment from a dozen or so players.
Click to expand...

Markos....given the start you had with these guys (referring to the openinng pages of this thread) this is a great achievement and shows that the players are starting to realise and understand the necessity of your work...well done!
 
Their enthusiasm comes from the results their seeing on the field. Max commented that on Monday night during a drill, he watched Taylor, who hasnt missed a session, get smashed by a player in a bump.

Taylor didnt break stride while the tackler was flat on the deck. There are about 15-20 boys who seem to love the weights as much as football.

As far as how many I can coach, at the beginning, Max and I would take about 4 each and teach them how to lift AND spot. Being athletes, they caught on quickly.

They all train alone now, or in groups with Max and I supervising. We mainly supervise the newer guys.

They also have the advantage of watching some of the PTC lifters, plus the PTC lifters often work in with the boys.

Its a pretty good enviroment for the players. One of the key motivators is old James. He is 61 and no player can out squat him or deadlift more than him.

They are getting close though.

One thing I really enjoy about this is that these boys were literally thrown on the scrap heap. I explained how most have been through the TAC and not picked up. The top 10 draft picks pick themselves, anybody could coach them. The TAC being an U18 competition, really dont focus on the last 20 kids on their list.

Its great to see the Broncos shifting those weights, they are the cream of the crop, the best athletes.

Thats not who I got, I got the ones who were deemed not good enough.

One has already proved he is, 3 years AFTER he finished in the TAC.

I hope to have one boy drafted every year through the Dolphins. I am very fortunate to be working with Simon Goosey.

He only won one game in his first year. You reckon he would be doing his best to keep his star players. Instead he is pushing to get them drafted. He sees his success at getting the kids deemed not good enough drafted.

I hope to help him win a few games along the way.

The Dolphins get 2 televised games this season, I'll let you guys know which ones for those interested.
 
PTC said:
Their enthusiasm comes from the results their seeing on the field. Max commented that on Monday night during a drill, he watched Taylor, who hasnt missed a session, get smashed by a player in a bump.

Taylor didnt break stride while the tackler was flat on the deck. There are about 15-20 boys who seem to love the weights as much as football.

As far as how many I can coach, at the beginning, Max and I would take about 4 each and teach them how to lift AND spot. Being athletes, they caught on quickly.

They all train alone now, or in groups with Max and I supervising. We mainly supervise the newer guys.

They also have the advantage of watching some of the PTC lifters, plus the PTC lifters often work in with the boys.

Its a pretty good enviroment for the players. One of the key motivators is old James. He is 61 and no player can out squat him or deadlift more than him.

They are getting close though.

One thing I really enjoy about this is that these boys were literally thrown on the scrap heap. I explained how most have been through the TAC and not picked up. The top 10 draft picks pick themselves, anybody could coach them. The TAC being an U18 competition, really dont focus on the last 20 kids on their list.

Its great to see the Broncos shifting those weights, they are the cream of the crop, the best athletes.

Thats not who I got, I got the ones who were deemed not good enough.

One has already proved he is, 3 years AFTER he finished in the TAC.

I hope to have one boy drafted every year through the Dolphins. I am very fortunate to be working with Simon Goosey.

He only won one game in his first year. You reckon he would be doing his best to keep his star players. Instead he is pushing to get them drafted. He sees his success at getting the kids deemed not good enough drafted.

I hope to help him win a few games along the way.

The Dolphins get 2 televised games this season, I'll let you guys know which ones for those interested.
Click to expand...

It is great to learn from your experiences and I look forward to developing a lifting culture at my future school. I see great potential in teaching strength training and feel it will open a lot of doors for the school's athletes. Not to mention the potential increase in the other all well being of the students.

Thank you for your input.
 
I thought I'd bring to life an informative thread.

The fellas tonight had scheduled a max out session on the bench press as well as the bench pull. For those that aren't up to date, you'll find a bench pull [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvRuHZ0JAxI"]HERE[/ame].

The head coach had told me a few different times that he'd made a make shift bench for the fellas to bench pull. Don't ask me what happened to the bench that was there late last year. When I got to the gym, I was not ready for this. It was 2 columns of 3 milk crates bound to each other with wire. Supporting the body was a lose (not bound) board. It didn't look strong, or safe.

I decided to let some of the lighter guys to try it out. Half way through them warming up I noticed that the board was actually bending, because of their body weight and the force of them pulling the 60kg barbell. It was at that point that I asked the young fella to take a bit of a break while I talk to a senior coach (Matt Armstrong).

I got lucky. He was on the cross trainer, right behind me. I asked him what should I do. I'd been told the fellas were to max out on the bench pull, though it looked very, very unsafe. Matt said not to use if it I don't think it was safe. Which was what I thought. He said just let the fellas do the bench press 1RM and do the rest of the daily program.
 
ah, rows aren't in the program. The whole programs pretty...different. They've got a 3km test run tomorrow, so I thought a RDL test might not be such a good idea. RDL's are in the program.
 
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