It's that time of year where I'm getting prepared for the next phase of training in my head.  At the end of the whole process, not a heck of a lot ever changes.  But, I throw in new ideas and play with them to see if they hold up.  This year is no different.

I have the first three weeks of summer lifting written.  It may change a bit before they actually begin, but it's fairly set and we all agree on it.

As I started getting ready to piece this together I spent some time looking at last summer's program.  I looked at last summer's testing numbers, injuries and all the stuff I have to take into consideration.

Strength-wise, the guys had a good summer.  They didn't necessarily show their strength well (1RM testing wasn't as good as it was in the spring).  We also dealt with more hamstring issues.

I've spoken extensively with the athletic trainer and I've come up with my solution.  We jumped right in, head first, last summer.  We were coming off of our best year in the program in over a decade.  I EXPECTED the guys to be bought in and I was WRONG.  Not many reported in June in any kind of shape like they did the year before.  The first day of running was terrible.

This is where I made my mistake.  Instead of adjusting for their awfulness, I decided to follow the plan as written.  The first 3-4 weeks we did pretty well and they got into better shape.  Around week 4-5 is when we started having some hamstring pulls.  Nothing crazy, just enough to have to hold them from 2-3 conditioning sessions and slight modifications to lifting.

As I looked back at the program I had a ton of hamstring work in.  The summer before we were good.  Not one hamstring all summer!  Might be the first I've personally seen.

As I move forward this summer my conditioning program will remain the same, philosophically.  It will change a bit in execution.  I haven't nailed down the exact conditioning drills we'll do, I have a list and we'll narrow it down.

As a side note, I usually write the lifting portion first, then conditioning.

One of the things I'm toying with is giving them a time limit to complete the reps.  No time, no rest time, just a block of time to complete the run.  My thought process here is that the guys that are in shape will get through the workout quickly (relatively speaking).  The guys who aren't in shape will have some time to do the work "at their own pace".

The other thing I'm thinking it will do is put more responsibility on the team.  We struggle with real leadership and commitment.  If it's always on me, they don't grow.  If I put them on the right track and then hand over control of the execution to them leaders should emerge (in theory)

Our conditioning days are Tuesday and Thursday.  We have a wonderful hill that we will use once a week.  The other day will be some type of "long" sprint work.  Ladders (my version, but I can't come up with a better name), half gassers, quarter gassers, 60 and 120 yard shuttles...  Like I said, I'm not sure yet.

We'll do this "untimed" conditioning for the first 4 weeks.  For the second four weeks going into camp I'll put the clock on the, like usual.  Again, my goal is for the guys who don't come back in shape to be able to rebuild their base without getting injured.  For the guys who stay in shape, it should keep them on top of things.  When it comes time to actually time them they should have a base of conditioning (between weights and running) and will be able to handle sprints with work/rest times.

In my mind, I like this idea.  We shall see how it ends up by the time we actually start summer workouts.

Lifting-wise we'll be on a three day, full body template.  The major change will be that each day will be dedicated to one lift (M-Deadlift, W-Bench, F-Squat).  We'll still do full body work, but the main lift of the day will follow the jumps and Olympic movement.

The old (but not necessarily replaced) set-up is:

Monday

  • Jumps/Olympic movement
  • Front Squat
  • Heavy Bench
  • RDL

Wednesday

  • Jumps/Hang Clean
  • Trap Bar/Deadlift
  • Incline
  • Single-leg BB

Friday

  • Jumps
  • Heavy Squat
  • Bench
  • RDL

The new idea is:

Monday

  • Jumps/Olympic Movement
  • Trap Bar/Deadlift (Heavy and rep work)
  • Pressing

Wednesday

  • Jumps/Push Press
  • Bench (Heavy and rep work)

Friday

  • Jumps
  • Squat (Heavy and rep work
  • Pressing

Again, not set in stone, but in talking with my assistants they all seem to understand my reasoning for exploring this idea.  We went away from it, I wrote a program with the original template and with this new template.  We revisited it and seem to have come back to liking the idea of making the slight change.

This is something we'll continue to talk about for the next few weeks before I set it in stone.  I'm hoping that all of the discussion helps me nail down a plan, possibly a new plan and it gets my assistants thinking critically about how they program.  In short, I want the best program for my athletes and I want my assistants to learn my process for program writing.  Hopefully, that adds a few more tools to the tool box.

I'll get to posting the actual lifting workouts with progression explanations and what I'm trying to accomplish on each day/week once I get more of the conditioning program put together.