As I was driving in this morning I was thinking about the big picture of training.  I must've gotten enough sleep because the brain was moving.  These are just a few things that came up.

  1.  All the BS rules have really made me be very thoughtful with my programming as far as pairing certain exercises.
  2. The rules have also caused me to become even more "limited" in my exercise choices.  Our weight room is split in half, but it's not a "balanced" weight room - meaning, my DB racks are on one side.  We have to keep our groups separated so getting DB's is not always a great idea.
  3. I've had to be very on top of my game with groups.  We still have 1 hour blocks, but 10-15 minutes is set aside for cleaning after each group.  It's AMAZING how much work can get done in a 10 minute block.  Missing that 10 minutes makes a difference (this ties back into 1 and 2).  This has really made me have to be ready for each group.  No BS'ing when they get in.  When it's time to go, we go.  Every piece of the workout - Warm-up, Main Lift, Circuit, Fluff, Stretch has time frames.  If I stick to the time frame we get everything done.  If I deviate too much we end up missing the "fluff" portion.
  4. I've taken an in-season template and made it an off-season template by simply adding 2 more rounds to the circuits.  This may actually turn into my "normal" off-season set-up.  It's been so efficient.  I'll need a little more time to see if it's as effective as it seems to be.
  5. Once the hoax is over I'll do my best to maintain some of these same ideas.  The efficiency is too good to allow myself to get lazy if I get another 10 minutes back.
  6. Running 2 weight rooms has really given my younger coaches a chance to see what it's like to be a head coach.  One of my guys "runs" the second weight room.  He's in charge of everything down there.  Schedule, cleaning... everything.  One of my other guys has 3 groups down there so he gets his chance to "be the boss" when he's down there.  As brutal as the schedule is, this is a great opportunity for my young coaches to really get some experience.  I'm guessing there are a lot of coaches out there with similar situations.  The hours and the fact that everything takes 2-3x longer than normal will expose a lot of people who think they want to be strength coaches.
  7. This is a gigantic pain in the ass, but a lot of good things can come out of this once the fog clears.

Ok, my thoughts are done.  Carry on.