Necessary Components of the High School Athlete’s Training Program

By Grant Neary

For www.EliteFTS.com

I was a high school strength coach for many years. Below are the top nine “rules” that I found to be important for success as a high school strength coach.

1.      Training philosophy: Have a system in place, practice it, and believe in it. Make sure your philosophy is dynamic and adaptable to any sport, athlete, and situation that you may encounter. Pull from multiple disciplines in the strength and conditioning world. Read Charlie Francis, Verkhoshansky, Zatsiorsky, Louie Simmons, and the other great minds. Mold their ideas into your own plan to make your program better and ensure that your athletes achieve at the highest levels.

2.      Dynamic warm-up: It does not have to be long. It does not have to be overly extensive. Increase the body’s core temperature, increase blood flow to the extremities, and prepare the body for the main training session to follow. Don’t fatigue an athlete to the point that it disrupts his or her training session. Don’t think that high school athletes will properly warm-up on their own. Chances are they may do a few static stretches and then throw 135 lbs on the bar and start lifting. This can be a recipe for disaster.

3.      Mobility work: This can be included in your dynamic warm-up or it can be done separately. The choice is yours. The vast majority of high school athletes, especially the males, have incredibly tight hamstrings, hip flexors, and heel cords. Focus on these areas so that your athlete isn’t an injury waiting to happen.

4.      Appropriate strength training: Regardless of the methodology of your program, realize that it must include exercises that address absolute and relative strength, rate of force development, pre-habilitation and injury prevention, and core strength and stability.

5.      Training continuum: This does not mean that a high school athlete needs to train 52 weeks a year. However, there must be an off-season, pre-season, and in-season training regimen, and it must be separated into blocks that address specific goals in these different periods. Too many times, a program does not have any goals, and too many times, a program just stops abruptly when an athlete’s season begins.

6.      Muscle focus: Focus on the muscles that can’t be seen in the mirror. Regardless of the sport, the development of the posterior deltoids, upper back musculature, spinal erectors, glutes, and hamstrings needs to comprise a huge concentration of the training program.

7.      Base level conditioning work: Incorporate into your program a conditioning program that will provide general conditioning regardless of the athlete’s sport. Prepare your athletes for any and all asinine conditioning drills that their sport coach may have them participate in. Use multiple methods of conditioning (i.e. sled, sprinting, Strongman, games, jogging, and body weight calisthenics).

8.      Speed and change of direction development: Speed and change of direction development should focus on quality repetitions with full periods of recovery. It should not be confused with conditioning. Have a goal and focus for each session. Don’t just have an athlete run for the sake of running. Again, don’t confuse the development of speed and change of direction with conditioning. They are completely different and should not and cannot be done simultaneously.

9.      Restoration/recovery work: Use foam rollers, the sled, feeder workouts, low level agility drills, static stretching, or whatever other methods are available. Teach the high school athlete about the restorative properties of proper nutrition and hydration.

Grant Neary is the owner of Power Hitter Sports Performance LLC, a performance enhancement training company based out of the Extra Innings baseball training facility in Hillsborough, New Jersey. He also serves as the head strength and conditioning coach for the New Jersey Revolution, a professional football team and member of the Continental Indoor Football League (CIFL). Grant has been a college and high school strength coach and has also coached high school football and baseball. When his college baseball career was cut short due to a shoulder injury, he turned his attention to powerlifting. He has a bachelor’s degree in physical education/exercise science, and he is a certified strength and conditioning specialist (CSCS). Grant can be contacted at powerhittersp@hotmail.com.