GPP for High School Freshmen
By Mark McLaughlin
For EliteFTS

My name is Mark McLaughlin and for 2 years I was the S&C football coach at a local high school. Currently, I own my own S&C center and these athletes train with me there. Before I left, however, I realized there was no system for preparing freshman for the upcoming years of football. They were under trained and basically ignored until they made varsity. The following addresses this issue and how I dealt with this lack of preparedness.

This article will deal with incoming freshman in high school (ages 13-15) and how their general preparation period should begin. Kids this age are void of a lot of the basic principles to begin lifting (lack of gpp, relative strength) and should not begin a serious weight training regime until certain strengths are in place. So the question is how to get them prepared. Jim Wendler was posed a similar question several months ago. Jim’s answer was very basic. Before anyone should begin lifting, they should be able to perform the following body weight exercises. Push-ups (50), sit ups (100), parallel dips (25), strict pull ups (10). This got me thinking about our new group of incoming freshman. I began a test to see how effective this method would be. First day, 12 freshmen reported, and I laid out my new GPP prep cycle and how it would be implemented and the reasons behind this type of training. We tested all of the athletes on the 4 core exercises. No one reached any of the goals. The question became: What kind of workouts would we implement to reach these goals? Body weight exercises and medicine ball work would be performed 3-4 days per week, and Charlie Francis tempo runs would be implanted 2-3 days per week.

WARM UP:
Warm up: 4 sets of 30sec each
Jumping jacks
Burpees
Star jumps
Shuffle steps
Abs 3x15

WORKOUT:
Workout: 3-4 sets of 12-15 reps per exercise
Push ups
Dips
Pull ups
Body weight squats
Lunges
Rainbows
Step ups
Hovers
Skywalkers
Broad jumps
Reverse Hyper (20-40lbs max)

MEDICINE BALL TRAINING
Medicine ball training: 2-4 sets of 15-50 throws using 4-8lb med ball
Chest pass
Side-side
Over hand/Under hand
Sit throws w/Partner
Russian Twist
Explosive med ball throws forward/backward 2x10

After 4 weeks of doing this training regime we retested the athletes. 5 out of the 12 kids met the goals. With this cycle completed, these 5 athletes were sufficiently prepared to begin implementing 1 barbell lift on each of the 4 days. Day 1 Squat. Day 2 bench. Day 3 dead lift. Day 4 bench. The following days would look like this as far as weight progression:

SQUAT

4x6 @ 95lbs Week 1
4x5 @ 115lbs Week 2
3x8 @ 75lbs Week 3
5x3 @ 135lbs Week 4

DEADLIFT

10x1 @ 135lbs
8x1 @ 185lbs
8x1 @ 205lbs
6x1 @ 225lbs

Accessory work for these two days consisted of:

Band Good Mornings 3x 15
Band pullthrough 3x15
Reverse hyper 3x10
Explosive med ball throws 2x10 (6-8lb balls)
Abs 8-15 sets of 25

BENCH DAY 1

4x6 @ 75lbs Week 1
4x5 @ 95lbs Week 2
3x8 @ 65lbs Week 3
5x3 @ 115lbs Week 4

BENCH DAY 2

3x10 @ 75lbs
3x10 @ 85lbs
3x10 @ 95lbs
3x10 @ 65lbs

Accessory work for these two days consisted of:

Push ups 3x 15
Pull ups 3x15
Dips 3x10
Chest supported row 3x15
Abs 8-15 sets of 25

We did the barbell cycle for 8 weeks, and then we completed a test day on dead lift and bench press. The results speak for themselves:

Athlete #1: DL- 355lbs BP-205lbs
Athlete #2: DL- 345lbs BP-185lbs
Athlete #3: DL- 275lbs BP-165lbs
Athlete #4: DL- 275lbs BP-145lbs


“But always reinforce correct technique for the purpose of developing positive self-esteem. Give athletes praise for their efforts-never criticize or ridicule. The correct selection of specific training elements in addition to practical skill tests or indicators ensures successful completion by the participant. To build a powerful image of self you structure a string of successes”.

Charlie Francis from CFTS