Like any coach, I'm always trying to perfect my craft.  I took advantage of a 6 hour bus ride to Davidson College this past weekend to dive into the Tier System by Joe Kenn.

One hundred and six pages, a file folder covered with notes and tight hamstrings later I finished the material I was able to find on the internet.

Similarities

Coach Kenn and I both have similar beliefs when it comes to training athletes, so it was a very easy read and was easy to understand.  Olympic Lifts, Squat, Press (all variations), Deadlift...  That's how you get people strong.

  1. Core (Foundation) Lifts drive the program.
  2. Power lifting/Bodybuilding/Weight lifting principles - take advantage of the different strength disciplines and use them for success with athletes.
  3. Focus on areas where athletes commonly suffer injuries.
  4. Perform a tremendous amount of work.

 

Differences

The differences are more subtle.

  1. I really like how he organizes his lifts.
  2. I like that each day has a main focus and that is the first lift regardless of whether it's an Olympic movement, a Squat or Bench.
  3. I like the idea of not just doing the Olympic Lift as the first movement because the "experts" say you should.
  4. Train the athlete with the purpose of improving the Main Lifts (In my case the Hang Clean, Squat and Bench).  This is slightly different than how I've looked at training.  I've always trained to improve overall strength.  In this process, the Main lifts are sure to improve and they have.  However, the concept of training the Main lifts "like a power lifter" is new to me, but it makes sense.  If those lifts improve, the entire body has to improve with them.

There are more similarities/differences, but these are the ones that kind of stick out to me and I didn't have to spend any time thinking about to write this.

Much like Jim Wendler's 5/3/1 books, everything is laid out for you.  I wasn't spoon-fed information, but there's enough that if you have any clue about training, you can figure it out.  I'm not saying that I "know" the Tier System, but it was pretty easy for me to understand.

The thing that makes it so attractive to me is that I don't really change anything I do besides the order of exercises and in some cases, how the exercises might be paired together.

Although Joe uses a different progression for his work sets, my system fits right in.  I'm in the process of organizing my thoughts and in the preliminary stages of putting my Winter program for football together.  I'm leaning towards using his exercise organization and giving it a ride this winter.

I've found that I'll have to make a few changes to the numbers/percentages I use.  If I can organize my thoughts on this I'll be able to make the adjustments without compromising my beliefs system.

That point is very important, in my opinion.  As coaches we should have our core belief system.  This system shouldn't be able to be corrupted with a new idea.  Although changes are inevitable, those changes should never go against your belief system on training.  If they do, your belief system sucks.  That's ok.  Younger coaches, especially, need to make these "mistakes" in the process of creating their own values.  At some point, though, you have to throw your sword down and stand for something.  That doesn't mean your belief system is perfect and not ever in need up upgrading.  It means you have core values and as you make changes to your program these changes have to fall in line with what's important to you.

In reading Joe's stuff, his philosophy falls very much in line with mine.  I also believe that some of the upgrades that his program offers can improve mine.  We'll see how this all plays out over the course of the Fall as I write out a preliminary plan.

As I go through this it'll be very clear to me if this deviates too far from my beliefs.  I don't think it will, but who knows?

I enjoyed reading the material I could get my hands on.  If my balls drop I'll get in touch with Coach Kenn and see what he's willing to share.