Often, we see high school coaches and athletes get so caught up during the off-season with such a motivation and desire for intensity that they neglect proper scheduling, recovery, and injury prevention. Training with intensity is great, but we must have purpose and planning or we will never see true progress.
More so than almost any other sport at the high school level, Track and Field has the greatest expectation of specialization in it’s training. Many coaches we speak to believe their athletes require a different program from any other sport, and different programs within that for sprinters, throwers, distance runners, etc. We love that coaches are invested in their athletes’ success, but we believe it requires a shift in mentality.
We believe the squat to be one of, if not the most important movement in which all athletes should become proficient. Learning a proper squat is crucial for athletes as it has applications in strength, mobility, stamina, injury prevention, and above all, sets a great foundation of strength and movement mechanics.
The clean, and all of its variations, is an incredible tool for athletic development, as well as general fitness. When executed properly, this one movement can help an athlete improve in all of these areas.
As Football coaches, we all know that one of the biggest keys to a successful season is keeping your team HEALTHY. Ours is a game of attrition. The teams that stay healthy, and keep their athletes as close to peak performance as possible, are the ones that win games down the stretch.
At St. Paul High School in Nebraska, a smaller school comprised of just a few hundred kids, Rusty Fuller serves as the Physical Education director for grades 7th through 12th, and is the Head Football Coach. Like many schools across the country, St. Paul has recently initiated a school-wide approach to fitness and physical training.…
We often get inquiries from coaches about their female athletes and what training programs they should be doing, how they should be different, etc. The bottom line is, here at PLT4M we do not differentiate between our male and female athletes, and we hate when girl athletes are told they aren’t supposed to train like the boys!
The olympic lifts are excellent tools for athletic development. That being said, they are also amongst the trickiest to teach. The first problem is a lack of understanding and adherence to clear and specific terminology.
So you want to run a training competition? Great! Coaches across the country utilize competitions every summer to incentivize athletes, increase participation, and build team culture. But how do you put it together? While a really great tool in theory, a training competition can be extremely difficult endeavor to actually administer on your own.
One of the most widely used – and misunderstood – athletic training tools is the agility ladder. For years, we have seen athletes of every sport attack the ladder every day in a vain attempt to get faster and more agile. Problem is, that’s not really what the ladder does.
One of the biggest issues we see on a regular basis is athletes sacrificing depth and form during the back squat in favor of loading up the bar with heavy weight.
Avoid the Starfish Catch – one of the most common faults we see with athletes performing the clean. Reinforce a good power position, allowing for depth at greater loads.