Want to know why you should get all your athletes in the weight room? James Coffey, Maine high school athletic director and coach, can explain.

Starting and maintaining a unified strength program for your entire athletic department is easily one of the most beneficial things you can do as an athletic director. It’ll help you build a winning tradition, prevent injuries, improve physical and mental strength—and definitely help you tally up wins.

So why doesn’t every high school in the country have one?

Well, that’s complicated.

Certainly there are schools in this country that have top-notch weight rooms that rival many colleges, but that’s the minority. There are also schools, particularly in districts where money is tight, that have nothing. No weight room, no strength coach, and maybe not even an athletic trainer. 
In my previous district, it took a full five years to entirely implement our strength program. We had some resources, but it still involved a lot of trial and error before we really had high participation and a rock-solid program. Once it was implemented, we offered the program after school, and in the summer, we had a program running three days a week. The first summer after implementing the full program, our combined athletic department fall record was 92-13. 

We’re now in my current school’s fourth year of having one strength program. After some improvements to our weight room, and settling in with a highly respected local strength coach, we’re starting to see player improvement and fewer injuries. 
If you’re looking to start a strength program at your school, there are two main elements you need: a room and someone to run the program. 
 

Use what you have

 
Do you have a weight room currently? If so, is the equipment safe and up-to-date? If you don’t have one, try to find an open space you could use. 

My school’s weight room was super small. It was cluttered with old Nautilus equipment and big bulky machines. We actually gave away a bunch of the old equipment we weren’t using to create more space. Then we discovered a storage room adjacent to the weight room that was full of old, unused equipment. We got rid of a lot, found another space to store the rest and knocked the wall down between the storage room and our weight room. That expanded our weight room by over 500 square feet. 

We laid down a new rubber floor, bought a mint condition rack of dumbbells (5’s-100’s) from a local resident, and were able to secure three new power racks. In a few months, spending just the money we had available, we were able to significantly upgrade our facility.

A lot of second-hand equipment is still in great shape and costs a fraction of what you’d spend on new weights.

Who runs it? 

 
In a perfect world, you’d have an expansive weight room and a nationally certified strength and conditioning coach, but it’s just not the reality for most schools. For a lot of athletic departments, only the football program does any strength training and that’s usually run by the coaching staff. 
So what resources do you have that you could leverage? Do you have a PE teacher, coach or an athletic trainer that has a background or certification in strength training? Is there a local gym you could contract through? Is a parent/guardian or booster group connected with a strength coach in the area?

In one school I worked in, we contracted a respected national organization to come in and run a two day, in-service workshop for our coaches. All of our coaches were certified to their standards, and we used that training to implement a strength program for our athletes. It worked well for us.
My current school contracts through a respected local gym that’s geared toward athletic performance. They provide us great service at a reasonable cost.

Create a program for everyone

 
Our program is simple, yet effective. We aren’t sport-specific, and that’s key. Our goal is to make our kids stronger, better athletes through a foundation built on basics. We change the exercises each session, but every workout follows the same simple structure:

1. Push something
2. Pull something
3. Squat
4. Hip hinge
5. Carry something

Make sure to have a lot of varying weight options to cater to all your athletes.

This broad framework allows you to differentiate instruction between kids based on their abilities. Not by sport. Every athlete in every sport can benefit from a strength program. And so can your school.

Pat Fox – Head Football Coach, Pontiac Notre Dame Prep (MI)
Coach Fox is a football coach. We believe that his message is applicable to all programs and all sports.
The following content is provided by Glazier Drive

The following content is provided by Glazier Drive

Coach Adam Mathieson is a football coach and athletic director. We believe that his message is applicable to all programs and all sports.

This post was provided by Complete Track and Field, a collection of great coaching resources for every track and field event.

Most track teams incorporate athletes from other sports. What are the important factors to consider when planning workouts for athletes coming from other sports.

By Marc Mangiacotti

Coach Mangiacotti is an assistant coach with the Harvard Crimson. He oversees the men’s sprinters and hurdles for Harvard, as well as serving as the recruiting coordinator.

Often, at the high school level, it is common for coaches to persuade their athletes to join the track and field team after finishing up their preferred fall or winter sport. Likely, the main goal for encouraging an athlete to go out for the track team – or the objective for an athlete transitioning to track & field – is to “stay active,” “develop speed/power,” or “get stronger for the next season.”

Though not as common at the collegiate level there are times when individuals express interest in becoming dual sport athletes. Participating in two sports in college is not impossible but it takes a special type of athlete to accomplish this, especially at the professional level.

Indoor track & field programs usually add athletes that are coming off of football, soccer, volleyball or field hockey.  Spring programs usually pick up athletes from basketball and swimming. Although similarities can be drawn from all types of athletic training, track and field training is more specific in structure considering the multiple events, training cycles and the number of weeks within each season.

* Training Resource: Advanced 400m Training Concepts

There are a few questions I ask myself when I adopt an athlete from another sport:

1) What types of training has the athlete been exposed to over the last few months?

2) What types of training are missing from the athlete’s workouts that relate to their track & field event?

3) Does this athlete understand the concept of a team sport versus an individual sport?

Most fall sports consist of lots of acceleration bursts with shorter recoveries like we see in football, soccer, and field hockey.  Therefore, if the athlete is a short sprinter or a jumper they have been checking a lot of the energy system requirements for these event groups.  There may be less energy system adjustments that need to be made, however, more focus may need to be on some of the technical aspects of the events.

* Coaching Recourse: 

 How to Plan Effective Workouts and Technical Progressions For Your Combo Sprinters/Jumpers

These athletes coming off of a football, soccer or field hockey season just want to be “quick.”  These athletes will naturally spin out of the blocks as they try to be as “quick” as possible.  This is when I think of the quote by Jedi Master Yoda, “You must unlearn what you have learned.” It will be paramount to get these athletes relearn the feel of proper acceleration— which may not always feel “quick.”

“It takes patience to run fast in track & field.”

– Vince Anderson

These same athletes usually run low.  I call them “low riders” because they drop their hips while sprinting.  This is usually carried over from sports like soccer, basketball, and field hockey because the athletes are concerned with the protection of the almighty ball that is in play.   It will also be important to help these athletes transition to a world where it is crucial to keep the hips up and run tall.

“Posture is the first most important aspect of speed.”

– Tom Tellez

If you have a triple jumper coming off of basketball then this athlete has been exposed to some good training and lots of vertical jumping. It will be necessary to introduce the feeling of horizontal jumps.   The last thing you would want is for the athlete to feel vertical off of the board in the triple jump.  This phase has way more of a horizontal component and feeling that probably has not been part of their daily routine in basketball.

“Create as much horizontal displacement as possible at take off in the triple jump.”

-Boo Schexnayder

The piece that is often forgotten or is never introduced to new athletes is the mental transition from a true team sport to an individual sport.  The “player” is used to having teammates around to push them and help make up for any mistakes.  Seriously…if I am playing football and I miss a tackle there are ten other guys on the field that can help back me up.  However, if I come down the runway in the long jump and foul…that is no ones fault, but my own and everybody knows it.

“Track & Field is the ultimate athletic event.  There are football players, basketball players, tennis players but we are track & field athletes.”

 – Paul Souza

* Training Resource:

Weight Training for Speed & Power

How to Plan and Progress Weight Training For Your Track & Field Athletes

Click here to learn more

Coaches need to make sure there is a team aspect to various practices so the multi sports athlete feels that they are being pushed and in a familiar practice environment.  It will also be important for the coach to help the multi sport athlete to understand the focus on one’s self during the individual events.  A lack of understanding of the individual feeling of an event will certainly lead to failure. These types of athletes will need a little bit of a team feeling with a new sense of individual awareness and focus.

Please follow me on social media. I’ll try to post workouts and videos when I can.

Twitter: @MarcMangiacotti

Instagram: @mmangiacotti

This article first appeared on The Coaches Network. (Reposted with Permission)

Core values are the foundation of what you do and why you do it. They are anchoring principles that ground you to what’s really important and guide you toward success. They are what you stand for no matter what your circumstances may be or what your win/loss record is. Core values serve as a guide because they are non-negotiable. They serve as the essence of what your program stands for and they are expected to be shared by everyone. Core values are central to your program and the decisions leaders make should revolve around them.

As a coach and leader, developing and communicating core values begins and ends with you. However, because core values are central to team success and character development, it is vital to involve your team in determining them, making them visible, emphasizing them, and using them as a guide for your program’s daily decisions and actions.

To begin defining your program’s core values, consider the following categories of core values. Have a meeting with your team and staff. Ask yourself and your team: What do we value about …

Being People of Strong Character
Effort and Commitment
Having a Positive and Productive Attitude
Being a Good Teammate
Competing Relentlessly.

As you discuss and work through defining your core values, give your team a chance to share or write down their responses to the previous question(s) and write them out on a white board, chalk board, or poster board. Once the responses are written down, place them into three categories:

Stay: The majority of the group agrees the value is important and will be a core value.

Example: “RESPONSIBILITY: We will be responsible for our actions. No excuses!”

Combine: Two or more values that are similar can be merged into one, overarching value.

Example: Poise and maturity can be combined into “COMPOSURE: We will control our emotions and decisions on and off the field.”

Cut: The majority of the team agrees that the idea does not have enough relevance or support to be a core value.

Once your team has developed five to 10 core values it’s time to put them into action. Here are a few ways to make your team’s core values part of its daily commitment to progress and success.

1. Post your core values in your locker room.

Create a constant reminder of your core values by posting them in the locker room, weight room, and your coaches’ offices. This doesn’t have to be anything fancy, only consistently visible.

2. Have every member of your team and staff memorize your core values.

To help embed core values, have your team members and staff memorize the core values. Be sure everyone in the program can recite the core values at a moment’s notice.

3. Emphasize one of your core values with each week.

Make a full week all about one of your core values. Before the first practice of the week, discuss the core value that will be emphasized that week and why it’s important. After each practice that week, recognize those that committed to and best exhibited that core value.

4. Recognize your core values when you see them on and off the field.

Call out your team members and staff when they exemplify the team’s core values. Catch them “doing good” and use them as an example for the entire team. Don’t be afraid to stop practice for a minute to point out how hard someone is working or when someone is being a great teammate.

5. Incorporate your core values in your highlight videos.

Be sure to include core values in your highlight and video sessions. This is a great way to show what your core values look like and to recognize those committed to them. It’s also a great way to show why core values are important even if the result of a play or a game isn’t what you want. These highlights are about doing it right.

It will be easy to stick to your core values when everything is going well. It’s easy to preach core values when your team is winning, everyone is healthy, and team chemistry is good. Sticking to core values becomes more difficult when you’re on a losing streak, you’re faced with setbacks, and your athletes may not be doing the right things on and off the field. As previously mentioned, core values begin and end with you. When you bend and break your core values, you run the risk of losing respect and trust with your team and you send the message that short-cuts are okay. Stick to your core values. They are an invaluable resource to build more mentally tough athletes and develop character in those around you.

Raymond Prior is one of the country’s top peak performance professionals, and has nearly a decade of experience educating athletes and coaches about building mental toughness. Prior works with athletes, teams, and coaches at professional, Olympic, NCAA, amateur, and youth sport levels. His clients include professional athletes, Olympic Gold Medalists, individual and team National Champions, National Coach of the Year Award winners, individual and team Conference Champions, and more than 100 NCAA All-Americans in a variety of sports. For more information on Raymond’s consulting, visit www.rfpsport.com, or contact him by email ([email protected]) or phone (505-235-4486).