We finished up our 2nd Cycle and moved on to the final 3 weeks of the summer.  Timing couldn’t have been better.  We had about 12 new players come in the final week of the 2nd Cycle.  Wednesday they were introduced to Squatting (light/speed week) and Friday was a Strength Check for the Bench.

The only “rule” I gave them was do not fail.  Not Squatting to depth is included in that rule, as well.  Same rule for Benching on Friday except I told them we could get after it a little bit.  Normally, I wouldn’t “test” new players, but I had it set up so that I felt comfortable with it.

I said they needed to get 5 sets of 5 reps and I needed to watch their top set of 5.  If they didn’t get 5, that set was their “test” set.  If they got 5, I had them add 10-20lbs depending on how fast it looked.  If they got 5, I did the same thing and that final set was a PR Set. 

It went pretty smoothly.  I think it was three things:

  1. I think they actually listened.
  2. I think the older guys that know the system did a good job of helping them out.
  3. I think I am getting better at explaining things.

Towards the end of the day Friday I was notified that we would have around 20 more guys on Monday – all new guys.  I have been thinking about dropping the Hang Clean for a few reasons and this seemed like the perfect place to do it.  I’ll get into why I dropped it in another installment.

We’ll finish our training cycle with:

Monday – Squat

Wednesday – Bench

Friday – Trap Bar

I’ll also be bookending the week with lower body work.  Wednesday will be an upper body day.  I figure we’re doing speed work on Monday and Friday, agility work on Tuesday and Thursday and lifting 3 days per week.  If I “skip” lower body training on Wednesday I’m not really missing anything.  Camp starts in 3 weeks so I need their legs to be fresh.

The lifts will be modified as I see fit, based on how they look when they walk into the weight room in the morning.  If they come in and they’re talkative and energetic I’ll proceed as planned.  If they are quiet, but start to perk up once we start warming up I’ll probably proceed as planned.  If they don’t get a spark during the warm-up I’ll make some changes as I go.

One of the things I’ve started doing is explaining the workout in stages.  If you’ve read my log then you know how I organize my template.  The attention span of an 18-22 year old college kid is measured in seconds.  I’m not really exaggerating.  It’s truly pathetic.

For example, I explain how to use the 3-Set Progression.  I give an example that is written on the board and explain that.  Then, I give them a number that they think I can Bench and ask one of them to explain to me how to use the 3-Set Progression (I’ve already explained it to them twice with audio/visual aids).  EVERY SINGLE TIME I’ve done this they screw it up.  This gives me a third opportunity to explain it.  I then ask, ‘Does everybody understand?  If you don’t, you have to ask me.  If you have a question, chances are that someone else does, as well.  Are you sure you guys understand?”

Without fail, 3-4 guys will come up to me and ask what the 3-Set Progression is. 

After all that rambling, I’m back on topic.  I started explaining one piece of the workout at a time.

Main Lift

                -Percentage

                -Reps

                -Goal/Purpose of the day (Speed/Technique/Work/Heavy…)

                -How much time they have to complete their work

Circuit

                -Where to set up and perform the exercises

                -Sets/Reps/Rounds

                -Goal

The miscellaneous stuff we do after this is at their own pace (to a point) and I just want them to get it done.  This seems to be a more effective way, despite some hiccups, of getting my point across. 

We just completed Week 7 (Week 1 of the 3rd Cycle).  We Strength Checked (tested) the Trap Bar today.  Next week we’ll Strength Check the Squat and the following week, the Bench.  We’ll also run the conditioning test for the guys who were on campus for the month of July.  I believe the head coach and I agreed on 20 workouts in July to qualify for taking it early.  I have to check my notes, but you get the idea.

As I look ahead I’m very curious to compare numbers/improvement.  I feel like the guys aren’t nearly as beat up and tired at this point as I remember them being in the past.  It’s hard to really tell because not all of them have been here for the whole summer and very few of them did what they were supposed to do at home. 

I will go over all my notes from the summer and fine tune things and run this again in the winter when I actually have everyone for 9 weeks.  I “want” this to work.  Obviously, you would never write a program that you didn’t want to be successful.  This fall I’ll need to take a look at the few guys that actually went through the whole summer and try to see if it actually worked.  If it did, I’ll tweak and run it again in the winter (as mentioned above).

Again, you never write a program hoping it sucks, but sometimes they do.  You have to be honest with yourself, make corrections and keep on moving forward.  Hopefully, I can honestly tell myself that I wrote a good program for the summer.  We shall see.