There are thousands of articles that discuss the strength and conditioning of athletes. Some of these articles are excellent reads with plenty of information beneficial to the strength coach. Others are good, some just ok, and some should never have been written. However, most don’t address what should be done with the athlete who has never seen the inside of a weight room.
Although it may be hard to believe, there are many athletes who get to the Division I level and have never lifted more than what they had to in that ever-so-hated, two-week session of high school PE class. There are some practical applications that must be considered when working with athletes who have little or no experience in strength training.
Don’t get too advanced
As Buddy Morris said in his interview with Dave Tate, “you gotta master the basics first!” (Morris 2006). To do this, you must think back to the very basics that you learned in your Strength Training 101 class and put it together with what you did to get strong when you were 17, 18, 19 years old, or maybe even younger. If you try to throw a Westside template combined with high/low sequencing and concurrent speed and agility training, you are TOO advanced for many athletes entering the collegiate setting.
Don’t get me wrong—I’m not condemning these systems. But I want to emphasize the fact that too many coaches get too caught up in all of the advanced methods and forget what is actually important for athletes who may have NEVER lifted weights before. What do these athletes really need? They simply need to get stronger, and everything else will come up along with their strength. Yes, athletes who are more advanced will need more, but the incoming freshman doesn’t.
The first thing that should be addressed when these athletes begin lifting is to make sure that they develop excellent technique in whatever exercises you will be building your program around. If you utilize the squat as the primary exercise, then teach them how to squat. If you utilize the bench press, then teach them to bench. If your main exercise is the clean, then teach the clean. Technique needs to be developed extensively. By teaching the correct technique the first time, you will prevent possible injuries, teach them how to use their body, and teach them how to get the most out of those exercises.
By using advanced methods too soon, you may be predisposing your athletes to a premature plateau, which will leave you wondering what is going wrong. The use of bands and chains, special exercises, short durations, and other advanced methods may not be appropriate. However, some program variables can be manipulated to develop young or beginning athletes.
Dynamic effort training
Dynamic effort training for nearly all athletes is imperative. However, how you implement this method needs to be manipulated for those athletes who do not have a background in strength training. The motor unit (MU) recruitment for young athletes is not as high as it is for those who have more experience in the weight room. Therefore, more weight is necessary to get these athletes to recruit a higher number of MUs.
According to Zatsiorsky, when lighter loads are lifted by untrained athletes: “(a) only a portion of the total MUs are recruited, (b) the fastest (and strongest) MUs are not activated, (c) the frequency of neural stimulation is not optimal, and (d) MU activity is (surely) asynchronous” (Zatsiorsky 1995). The intensity for beginning athletes needs to be increased above what is typically recommended for dynamic effort training. The typical recommendation for dynamic effort work is 45–60 percent. However, upon observing young athletes attempt these weights, it didn’t take me long to realize that they weren’t getting much out of these intensities.
I have found that waving the weights from 60 percent to 70 percent for the box squat works well. The speed at these weights is not hindered, and the athletes are required to exert more effort, thus recruiting more MUs. I don’t utilize any accommodating resistance for the majority of first year athletes. Other options for lower body dynamic effort work for beginners include jumping exercises with a weight vest, med ball throws, single-leg box jumps, and kettlebell training.
The bench press presents a different obstacle with beginners. For the athletes I’ve worked with, I don’t feel that the dynamic effort bench press is warranted. I don’t have an explanation for this other than observing with my own eyes that it isn’t effective. In place of dynamic effort bench training, I utilize a high volume day (usually four sets of eight), which teaches the athlete to stay tight throughout the duration of the exercise (don’t worry, they won’t get slower).
To develop upper body explosiveness, various med ball throws and med ball bench throws are all effective exercises. For some athletes, isomiometric speed bench is an effective means of improving the rate of force development in the upper body. Isomiometrics involve an isometric hold for a designated amount of time between the eccentric and concentric portions of the lift.
Increase the volume
If you are an entry level strength coach, chances are you will be working with the teams whose athletes didn’t receive quality high school strength and conditioning programs. As I have already stated, these athletes will need to start with the basics. When you think back to the basic linear periodization model, what must come first? High volume and hypertrophy work. What must be done first, as Bompa suggests many times? Anatomical adaptation (Bompa 1993).
Those two answers are precisely what needs to be done with these athletes. Hammer them with reps. The high volume will help them develop not only their muscles, but also the connective tissues, which take longer than the muscles to adapt to training (Siff 2003; Bompa 1993). Going too heavy too soon may be disadvantageous to the athlete’s long-term development. This type of training is also excellent GPP for further advanced training.
In order to accomplish this, I do a few different things. I emphasize their assistance exercises. After technique work in the main exercises, I feel assistance work is the most important aspect of training beginners. I incorporate a high number of exercises with the majority of the reps falling in the 8–12 range. For lower body work, I use RDLs extensively. For upper body work, dumbbell presses always follow the main movement and then I always incorporate either one or two lat exercises. For the dumbbell presses and lat work, I try to get close to an RM for whatever rep range they are using.
Next, I target the main movement with higher volume. For dynamic effort training, 10–12 sets are common but sometimes as many as 15. If I am having them work up to a heavy single, they will first perform sets of five to a near 5RM, then the same for triples, and then their designated singles. This is about a total of eight sets, but sometimes we will exceed that number depending on how the singles go.
Incorporate “strength” work versus max effort work
As I have said repeatedly, many of the younger athletes who you will work with do not have a background in strength training. So advanced methods may not be appropriate. We all like to do max effort work. It’s fun and challenging. But the 105 lbs women’s high jumper does not like to do max effort work. Also, it may not be beneficial to incorporate max effort work with beginning athletes on a regular basis.
Most young athletes, especially females, are not psychologically prepared to lift heavy loads regularly. Many of them are intimidated by heavy weights. It is never a good idea to put someone who is afraid of lifting heavy loads under a bar to perform a maximal attempt. This is a recipe for disaster, which places both the lifter and the spotters at risk. Because of the high motivational level that is necessary, staleness can occur and may negatively affect sport performance (Zatsiorsky 1995).
Young athletes need to develop a strength base before handling maximal loads on a regular basis. Since the repeated effort method recruits a greater subpopulation of MUs, it may be more advantageous to incorporate this method prior to using the max effort method. This will create a longer lasting training effect. One way to incorporate the repeated or submaximal effort methods is to include introductory weeks. These allow the athlete to become accustomed to the exercise before taking a max attempt. Below is one example of a possible three-week block leading up to max effort work in the third week:
It’s more than just a program
Don’t get caught in the trap that whatever you typed into the program is law. As a coach, you should be knowledgeable and observant enough to know when a change is necessary. Dave Tate has preached this concept continuously over the past couple years in his posts and articles on EliteFTS.com. Buddy Morris also talked about this in his interview with Dave in July (Morris 2006).
You have to make adjustments based on what is going on with the athlete’s body during the workout. For example, one of my better female squatters recently worked up to 245 lbs and then added chains until she had eight chains per side. Physically, she was done. Any more work would have been counterproductive. So I ignored everything else that she was supposed to do for the day. Instead of following the program, I had her do three sets of iso-dynamic back extensions with bodyweight only and let her go home.
In another instance, the women’s jumpers came into the weight room last spring (in season) for a workout after practice. I could see immediately by their movements and facial expressions that they were physically exhausted. I kept a close eye on how they were doing during their main exercise, and then when they finished the movement, I collected their workouts and told them to enjoy the rest of their day. At that point in the season, had they continued their workout, they would have just been digging themselves into a hole. As coaches, we are supposed to help the athletes, not just manage a program.
Another important point is to listen to the athletes. Learn which athletes you can trust. Ask them questions about their workouts and what they feel helps them and what doesn’t. Your good workers are willing to do nearly anything to get better, and if you listen to what they are telling you, you can make the program better for the entire team.
To be able to adapt your program in this manner, you must get to know your athletes. Learn how they respond to various situations. Their movements, facial expressions, and body language can all give you an insight into what they can and cannot handle in a workout. Although it can be if you have the money, this does not have to be a quantitative process. If you know your athletes well, they will tell you verbally or physically what should be done. You just have to know what to listen and look for.
I hope this article has given both the new strength coach and the veteran something to ponder. Try to take something from this and apply it to your own philosophies to help make your program better for your athletes. Remember, it’s not about you. It’s about helping athletes become better athletes.
References
Siff Mel (2003) Supertraining (6th ed.) Denver: Supertraining Institute.
Zatsiorsky V (1995) Science and Practice of Strength Training. Champaign: Human Kinetics.
David Adamson is an assistant strength and conditioning coach at the Virginia Commonwealth University. He is pursuing a master’s degree in sport leadership. In the spring of 2003, David held an internship as a strength coach at Arizona State University. He has worked with a variety of sports including football, basketball, wrestling, baseball, gymnastics, soccer, and tennis. At VCU, he works with women’s track and field, men’s and women’s tennis, men’s and women’s cross country, and golf.
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