Off-Season Football Training

Well, it's that time of year, again. Football season is not quite over, but I'm thinking about winter training. This is normal for me. I'd imagine it's normal for most strength coaches. We want the season to go on for as long as possible, but inevitably, it ends and we have to be ready for winter workouts. A few things happen during winter workouts. 1. We lift and run (obvious). 2. We start to develop the identity of the team. After graduating seniors we lose part of the previous identity and that needs to be found. 3. We lose senior/experienced leadership with the graduating seniors and new leaders have to be identified. 4. We set the tone for the type of team we will have. Whatever bad habits they have in January and February that aren't corrected will more than likely be the issues they have during the season. Lack of discipline in winter workouts is probably going to lead to lack of discipline during the season, etc... As far as lifting goes, my plan is constantly in place. I have developed my program and it's pretty much set in stone as far as "the rules" of it go.

1. Dynamic Warm-up
2. Explosive Movement (Olympic Lifts, Jumps)
3. Lower Body Strength (Squat, Front Squat, Deadlift)
4. Upper Body Strength (Bench, Incline, Press)
5. Horizontal and Vertical Pull
6. Injury Prevention (ankles, knees, back, shoulders, neck)
7. Ab Work (done throughout the workout)
8. Mobility/Flexibility

If these things are addressed in the lift then I'm happy. The running portion is more general conditioning. The goal is to build a base of overall conditioning that we can use during spring ball and then continue to develop throughout the summer. We do agility drills, conditioning drills and toughness drills. Nothing groundbreaking or trailblazing. Just basic stuff to get the guys into pretty good shape. In my experience, football coaches understand that the guys don't need to be in game shape during spring ball. Just in good enough shape to practice for 2 hours 4 days per week. I have written the football program for the time over winter break (5 weeks) and for the 8 weeks leading up to spring practice. It is not finalized, but I'm pretty comfortable with it. All I really have to do is make sure that the "flow" of the weight room will be good. With small weight rooms you can run into log jams with certain exercises because of limited space or equipment. Having been here for 3 years I know what needs to be adjusted to keep things moving. Side note: I think this is a skill young coaches should learn. When you have massive weight rooms like Ohio State, Alabama and pretty much any of those schools it's easier to program without having log jam issues, although they could still exist. The small, limited weight room will really force you to program basics, which I think is good. And, when you do get to a big school it makes programming even easier because you've had to figure so much out.