Ground Based Movements

One thing that really cracks me up is the question "how much do you bench?" It is interesting how this lift became the standard by which me measure strength. It really has very little to do with athletics. Our kids are getting pretty strong, yet we don't have a lot of big bench pressers. Our workout on Wed./Thurs. consisted of a warm up with Overhead Squats, Pullups, Pushups, a workout of Cleans and Split Jerks, and we finished off with a core circuit. Now those lifts develop total body strength. Check out the video of some of our players performing the Clean. Kids will ask "which muscle does this work?" You can see by the video the answer is ALL OF THEM and in an explosive fashion. This lift requires a great degree of technique, balance, and coordination coupled with explosive strength. Can you the potential carryover to the athletic field.



Check out the sweat angel- courtesy of Tanner Jordan.

Youth Conditioning Clinic

Today we put on a sports conditioning clinic for some of the young athletes in our community. What a great event! About 20 young men aged 7-14 came out and went through a series of running mechanics, agility drills, plyometrics, and a bodyweight workout. They worked real hard and did a great job. Thanks to RHS athletes Cole Herrin, Josh McCreath, and Dyllon Haines for helping out and thanks to all those who attended. We will be putting on more free clinics in the near future.

Attitude and Effort

We consistently reinforce with our players that there are two main variables they have control over every day. The attitude they choose and the the effort they give. These are the two main requirements we have, approach each workout or practice with a positive attitude and give your best effort in every thing we do. It is interesting how these two variables are related. It seems if a player (or any of us for that matter) realize there is a certain amount of work that has to be done so we might as well do it the best they can, it changes our attitude. It makes us realize that hard work is productive, it makes us better. It makes us tougher. We feel a certain amount of self-satifiction with overcoming our reservations and doing what has to be done with our best effort. This is how people build confidence and that "can-do" spirit. If we feel good about ourselves, we have a positive attitude. A positive attitude is contagious and empowers those around us.
Whining,complaining, imitating an ostrich and putting our head in the sand only serves to destroy our attitude and our confidence. Besides that it is infectious. It brings the people around us down. No one likes to be around a whiner or a slacker. I didn't begin teaching until I was 30 and like many people worked a lot of different manual labor type jobs while trying to "figure it out". I was working on a crew one time that was assigned to clean out drained river beds. Talk about nasty, dirty, HARD, work! The supervise told us we were staying until the work was done so we might as well "screw it and do it." I will never forget that lesson. I have added one part to the saying though, "screw it and do it the best you can!"

Protein Supplements

I am often asked by players and parents about which nutritional supplements the players should be taking. My answer is always the same. I ask "Do you eat breakfast everyday?", "Do you eat 5-6 small nutrient dense meals a day?", "How many fruits and vegetables do you eat every day?", " Do you eat fast food, drink soda, eat chips, donuts, etc. often?" If a teenager isn't serious about their nutrition then they might as well take there money and throw it in the toilet because that is about as good as any of the SUPPLEMENTS they want to take will do them. Here are a couple things to remember.

1. The word supplement means 'in addition to'. These pills and powders are not magic, they have a very small effect, if any. The companies that sell them pay big money to the people they use as models, and in the case of the big time bodybuilders, you CANNOT get that big without the help of anabolic steroids. There is no supplement in the world that can produce results like that.
2. Nutritional Supplements are not required to be tested by the FDA. This means you don't really know what is in them and many of them have not undergone any long term empirical studies. They may do you more harm than good.

Check out this article on the amount of heavy metals in protein powder supplements http://news.discovery.com/human/protein-drinks-packing-a-poisonous-wallop.html

The nutritional supplement industry makes millions of dollars each year. Everyone is looking for the quick fix, the extra edge, the secret to accelerated weight and strength gain. Rich Carlisle, the strength and conditioning coach at USC told us that their "secret" weight gain supplement for their athletes was Peanut Butter sandwiches and whole milk. Now you are talking about a university that has access to the latest and greatest sports nutrition in the world, and they are eating peanut butter sandwiches. Does this tell you something. Like they say in the movie Kung Fun Panda "the secret is there is no secret!"




Work hard, eat plenty of good, get plenty of rest and be consistent. Healthy strength and weight gains come a little at a time. I tell our players if you can add 5 lbs. a week to their lifts, over 12 weeks that is 60 lbs. Many of our sophomores put more than 100 lbs. on their lifts over the course of the past year, but it doesn't happen in a couple weeks. Patience and consistency are the key. We want our players to understand that their fitness is about a lifestyle, not about short term results.

June 14, 2010 Train Hard, Win Easy

We continue to have a great group! There are approximately 60-70 players attending every morning. This is about 80% of our players. There are a few that miss here and there, but the core is there most every day.



Jake McCreath pushes himself to the limit during last Friday's workout.


WOD

Weight Room
Front Squat- 5 x 5
Bench Press- 70% x 5, 80% x 3, 90% x 3

5 Pullups
10 Pushups
15 Squats

Max Rounds in 10 minutes- Andy Bunting- 10, Junior Yciano- 9 (varsity players)


Field
Ladder Drills
Lateral Hurdle Hops 5 sets x 10
Falling starts x 25
20 yd sprint on the minute for 20 minutes

June 10, 2010 Week 1 in the Books

What a great first week! There are two things we ask from our players everyday. First show up with a positive attitude, and second, give your best effort. This group did not disappoint us one bit. On the contrary, our upper classmen showed great leadership by not only encouraging the younger players, but modeling the way we do things at Ripon High. The kids went through some very difficult workouts (see todays WOD below- this was brutal!) but there was no whining or complaining, just great effort. This is how you improve, by pushing your own limits, you will never know what you are capable of doing unless you push yourself to the limit. One of the common misconceptions people have about football players is that we spend all our time working on our bench press or in the squat rack. What they fail to realize is we are training to enhance our players ATHLETICISM. What we do in the weight room is really only a part of the way we workout. Check out the video of our one of the weeks earlier workouts.



WOD
Clean 65% x 5, 75% x 5, 85% x 5 or more
Push Press- 5 sets x 5 reps

Teams of 5
3 rounds
Mountain Climbers
Pushups
Jumping Jacks
Overhead plate hold (varsty- 45#, F/S- 25#)
Catwalk

One member of the team at each station performs the exercise while one member runs to the top of the catwalk and back. As soon as he is back, team rotates. Once each member completes each station- that is one round. This was one difficult workout. I will post some video of this weekend.

Todays Workout

Weight Room
Overhead Squat- 5 sets, 5 reps, work up to 5 rep max
Bench Press- 65% x 5, 75% x 5, 85% x 5

WOD- 5 Rounds for time
Pullup x 10
Push up x 20
Air Squat x 20
Situp x 20

Field
Running technique
Ladder Drills
Tuck Jumps- 5 sets x 10 reps
50 squats, 400 m run x 3 sets

The kids worked really hard today. Many are probably thinking "what did I get myself into?" It is like I told the varsity guys today - We will be the best conditioned team on the field every game, period. Our workouts are very physically demanding and our kids will be in great physical shape, but they do more than that. They make you mentally tough. When you push yourself to the point of exhaustion on a regular basis, something happens to you. It makes you tough. It gives you a "can do spirit" so when times get hard, it isn't so easy to give up.

In the weight room we focused on overhead squats today. If you have never done them, they can be a very humbling exercise. They require balance, shoulder strength and flexibility, core strength, and hip flexibility. In short, they make you a better athlete. A lot of times though the big guys that are able to push a lot of weight, have a hard time using a 45 lb. bar. It is not unusual to see the receivers lift more than the linemen with this exercise. I know our guys had a hard time this morning with this exercise. Check out the video below of the young lady doing a set of 5 reps of OHS with 85 lbs., this is very impressive considering most of our big guys couldn't do this much!

2010 Football

Here we go! Today was a great start to the 2010 football season. It was more of an introduction period. We taught the new players how to warm up, how to do the dot drill, timed all the players 40's, and maxed them out with in pullups. Why do we max test pullups? It is a real test of pound for pound upper body strength. We are about building ATHLETES not powerlifters or bodybuilders. The first question people ask when they question a person's strength is "how much do you bench?" This drives me nuts. I had a coach in college say " I have seen a lot of 400 lb. bench pressers sit the bench, but I have never seen anyone who could clean 300 lbs. not be a starter." This is absolutely true. Now we don't see a lot of 400 lb. bench pressers or kids that can clean 300 lbs. in high school, but we do get a lot of our kids cleaning at least 200 lbs. and they do it with great technique. Our program is all about athleticism. Check out these videos shot during our spring workouts.

This is Cole Herrin performing cleans. He has some technical things to work out, but overall his form is pretty good. Look how much coordination it takes to perform the lift. Now that is enhancing athleticism!



Jordan Sullivan cleans 215 lbs. here. In our recent lift-a-thon he got 245 lbs.! Not bad for an incoming junior!