Re: H.S. Football Strength Program

[Guest guest]

There was a good discussion about BFS around December

24-28, 2002 on this listserve. Check the archives for

them.

I've seen a number of high school implement BFS with

varying degrees of success. The program is very

prescriptive and I've seen coaches follow the basic

program to the letter - obviously not the best thing

for all athletes. On the other hand, there are coaches

who go nuts w. conditioning, plyos, etc... that it's

no surprise that the kids end up hating lifting.

I don't keep up with BFS publications and I've never

seen the variations your son's coach is using in a BFS

program. I don't know how your son was training prior

to this, but I'm not surprised that his squat is

suffering. A lot of kids I've seen go through a

to-the-letter-BFS program started to regress a few

weeks into the program.

The main gripes I have with BFS is their: 1) basically HIT

approach to lifting, 2) overemphasis of daily PRs,

3)lack of direction in plyos/agility/speed work in

their programs, 4) slow, static stretching prior to

workouts, and 5) their insistence on the use of

ultra-high box squats on tiny, unstable boxes.

Just my observations. Good luck with your son - I hope

he does well.

Boris Bachmann

Des Moines, IA

P.S. - Your name looks familiar. Did I send you a

booklet about strength training for competitive

swimming a while back?

--- Clinevell wrote:

> Just wanted to share with you guys what my nephew's

> H.S. football strength program is. I'm having difficulty

> working around it with him and he's already lost about 40lbs off of

> his box squat in 3-4 weeks. Apparently all of this is done over an 8

> week " cycle " ...

[Guest guest]

I don't know how old your nephew is or how much football he plays but

this sounds like a lot of volume for someone who also has to play

another sport week in week out. Especially something as damaging to

the body as football. Sounds like overtraining to me.

To be fair, what with injuries etc, I wouldn't expect everyone to

keep getting stronger throughout the entire season but in my personal

experience you should be able to at least maintain strength if you do

not have injuries that keep you out of the weight room.

As for " football stronger " , if you make it through the season without

getting injured and are still standing by the time you make the

finals then I would say your programme is on the right track. In many

cases the team that wins at the end of the season is not necessarily

the best team but the team who deteriorates least.

The problem with " mass " programmes is that they don't allow for

individual recovery rates etc. If I was doing this programme I would

lose strength immediately because it takes ages for me to recover

between sessions (3-5 days). A good coach with experience should be

able to monitor his player's progress and make changes to his basic

routine on an individual basis to accomodate recovery rates,

anthropometics, motivation levels etc. But how many places have good

strength coaches?

On the good side, it looks as though the programme is balanced to

some extent and they are doing some neck work (which is vital for

football).

What can your nephew do if he doesn't want to scrap this programme

and make up his own? Cut the number of sessions per week until he

starts improving. Cut the number of sets per session until he starts

improving. Get more sleep, eat better and drink more water. There are

numerous options available.

One thing I know " if something isn't working, change it until you

find something that does " .

You managed to find the Supertraining forum - so you obviously

already have your own ideas about what makes a good training

programme. I'm sure you can encourage your nephew to take control of

his own training and find what works for him, while taking into

consideration the comments made by others and evaluating them on

thier own merits.

Greg Haroldson

Brighton

UK

" Clinevell " <skunkmonk@j...> wrote:

> Just wanted to share with you guys what my nephew's H.S.

> football strength program is. I'm having difficulty working around

> it with him and he's already lost about 40lbs off of his box squat

> in 3-4 weeks. Apparently all of this is done over an 8 week " cycle " .

[Guest guest]

Well hi there,

The routine you outlined, I think was far too high volume, and had a lot of

bench-pressing (20 sets per week, not sure why). Way too much pressure on the

joints with all that work.

Here is routine that might interest you, to be done three times per week, 8 to

12 reps, slow controlled, one set of 8 to 12 reps

We believe all the speed work of football should be practiced on the field as in

passing, side stepping, sprinting etc, etc, ect.

4 way neck machine

Shoulder shrug

Hip and back machine or dead lift

Leg extension

Pullover on machine

Leg press or squat

Lateral raise

Shoulder press

Twisting dumbbell curl

Dips

Wrist curl

Finger curl

Reverse curl with thick handled barbell

Lots of youngsters love bench pressing, so you could add it twice a week.

Thank you,

Wayne Rowley

Valletta Malta

Clinevell wrote:

> Just wanted to share with you guys what my nephew's H.S.

> football strength program is. I'm having difficulty working around

> it with him and he's already lost about 40lbs off of his box squat in 3-4

> weeks. Apparently all of this is done over an 8 week " cycle " ...

[Guest guest]

Hello Wayne,

Definitely a lot of bench pressing. I like controlled but not

slow. The only slowing that I like to do while doing multi-joint

movements is at reversal and at rep completion. I do have him slow

some movements down when I'm working more for hypertrophy than

strength.

Thanks,

Clinevell

Salem, VA

WAYNE G ROWLEY <wayne@w...> wrote:

> The routine you outlined, I think was far too high volume, and had

> a lot of bench-pressing (20 sets per week, not sure why). Way too

> much pressure on the joints with all that work.

> ...

> Lots of youngsters love bench pressing, so you could add it twice a

> week.