A lesson I always try to teach my students is that if you don't stand up and do something about the problem when you have the opportunity, then you've given up your right to complain when things aren't going the way you want them to. Voting, offering feedback, brainstorming solutions—participate in the process or sit back down and shut up (my sales pitch in the classroom is far more gentle).
In terms of strength and conditioning, I've been spoiled to say the least. In college, I was fortunate to train under the guidance of one of the absolute best, Dave Kennedy. Nineteen years later, there is still knowledge that I apply and rules that I follow because of him. More recently, I've been blessed to work with and learn from Dan Stevens, who I believe is in a class by himself in terms of strength and conditioning at the high school level. Not only does he make a constant effort to learn more and improve his craft, but he makes it clear that he cares deeply about the success of the student-athletes he's working with. Couple this with the tremendous amount of knowledge available through books, videos, and websites like elitefts™, and my learning in the last year has been accelerated to say the least. The high school ‘problem’ may only apply to a small segment of the elitefts™ population, but I believe that it warrants discussion. There are concepts in play that are applicable to all levels of strength and conditioning.
After numerous conversations with Coach Stevens and other people far more intelligent than I, it has become obvious that there is a tremendous gap between where we are and where we would like to be in terms of strength training at the high school level. As a teacher (as well as a former athlete, coach, and now fledgling powerlifter), I see a number of similarities between the battle to convince students of the value of what we do on a daily basis in the classroom and the battle to get young athletes on board with what strength coaches and others are trying to accomplish in the area of strength training. The battles in the classroom (“Why do we have to do this?” and "Am I ever going to use this?”) may seem completely removed from the battles in the weight room, but the mission remains the same—get them focused on and dedicated to the task at hand.
In strength training, there will always be philosophies that don't match up, but the end result should always be the same—to get stronger! However, the current state of strength training at the high school level suggests that the goals and visions of success have become clouded by a whole range of issues. Maybe it's time that everyone who has a hand in the process takes a look at the issues and works to come up with solutions. Here are the issues as I see them:
Lack of knowledge
This is without question the number one problem that I see happening. I anticipate that not all students who walk into my classroom will have the same skill set, just like not all athletes who walk into the weight room will have the same strength or level of proficiency in their technique. You don't blame the student or the athlete for this. You put everything that you have into working with him or her and helping him or her get better. In the weight room, the struggle is exacerbated by people who don't show any effort to seek the knowledge that will make them better. That burden doesn't fall on the kids but rather their coaches and, in some cases, their parents.
Proper strength training will always be a vital piece of the success of any high school program. Think of all the hours that coaches spend at conferences and clinics trying to improve their craft and find schemes and techniques that can improve the on-field product. Why wouldn't they put the same effort or expect someone to put their best efforts into the strength training program that helps dictate the success of their team?
Unfortunately, too many coaches have become lazy when it comes to the elements of training that occur ‘outside the lines’ of competition. They simply go with what they felt worked in the past or pass the duty of strength training off to someone who is equally as ignorant. This ‘dynamic’ is made even worse because many parents assume that their kids are spending time in the weight room getting what they need. I can spend a lot of time in a health food store, but the scale tells a different story in terms of me getting what I need. If sports are in a constant state of evolution, it would make sense (at least to me) that the things we do in order to prepare kids for sports have to evolve along with the sports. We talk constantly about keeping kids safe when they are competing, so why is strength training not a larger part of that discussion?
Private trainers and facilities
Collectively, this builds off the lack of knowledge and creates a number of issues for people involved in sports as well as the field of strength training. Before anyone attempts to run me over with a very large truck, I must say that there are some outstanding facilities and trainers out there, people who ‘get it,’ who know what they're doing and have results to back it up. I find it tremendously impressive when I'm told of or read about training facilities that work in conjunction with the existing team/program to make that athlete better. I envision that this takes place often at the professional level (I doubt it was any accident that Coach Kennedy had so many NFL guys come back to train with him in the off-season). There is a lot of benefit to young athletes training with their team, as long as there is appropriate methodology behind what is being done away from the team. Kudos to the young athletes who push themselves even further by seeking additional opportunities to improve after first completing their obligations to the team.
However, there are far too many who don't get it. Borrowing a recent tweet from Joe DeFranco, “Any coach can make you tired. It’s the easiest thing in the world to do. But it takes a true professional to make you better.”
How many of these trainers and facilities are falling on the positive side of the line? The kids are highly impressionable, and the parents buy the sales pitch and fork over mind numbing amounts of money. As far as they know, they're seeing results, right? Something will always be better than nothing, but if the parents don't know any better and the gap between the athlete and his same age peers continues to widen, was the investment worth it? The trainer had all sorts of acronyms after his name. That's all that matters, right?
As a teacher, it's your responsibility to close the gap as best as you can between the students who have the skill and those who still need to acquire it. You differentiate instruction so that everyone has an opportunity to be successful. I would hazard a guess that not all of the ‘trainers’ out there are taking the same approach.
Specialization
The trend in high school athletics in terms of specialization is a problem that is constantly growing, with both coaches and parents playing a role to make it happen. Put simply, it's the attempt to get young athletes to focus most, if not all, of their time on one sport over another.
There isn't any question in my mind (and the minds of many others) that the schools with the most successful athletic programs are the ones that not only have a strong strength training program but also have coaches who are willing to share athletes with the other sports. Not only are they willing to share, but they have the confidence in their colleagues that things are being done correctly and that when the athletes transition from one sport to the next, they will be physically ready to go. At bigger schools, the concept of sharing is important. At small schools, there is little to no chance for all teams to be successful if coaches aren't on board with this idea.
Sadly, lines are crossed and issues are created with this all the time. It affects not only the potential of that athlete to be successful but also the overall athletic program at the school. There isn't any question that kids are resilient, but like anyone else, they can also feel the effects of being overworked psychologically and physiologically. If you put a kid through a week of heavy lifting and running for football and follow that up with a 4–6 game summer basketball (or baseball or lacrosse) tournament on the weekend, when do they have time to recover? I surely understand and advocate for the idea that an athlete needs to put in off-season work to improve his craft, but if the expectations that we place on him are too great (and we know most will do all they can in order to meet those expectations), is it really his fault if he falls short? If an athlete doesn't have time to recover or the opportunity to appropriately develop his skill set, how is that any different than a teacher giving a student so much to accomplish in a short period of time that he goes into survival mode as opposed to developing?
I've certainly identified some issues. Now it's time to consider some solutions.
Solutions
- From an administrative standpoint, make strength training a priority, not just an afterthought. This has to start from the top (athletic director) and remain a consistent expectation that is passed down to head coaches year after year. Leaving it up to the coaches has gotten us to where we are now, so that has to change. If a coach is bothered by this expectation, he needs to step back and engage in a serious case of check your ego at the door. Even with eleven state championship banners hanging in the gym, does anyone believe that the athletic director at Cleveland St. Ignatius has to battle with Coach Chuck Kyle to get kids in the weight room?
- Very much like what a teacher hopes to see in the classroom, if you don't know something, take the time to find out the answer. Ask questions, look up information, and seek out people who can help you. If you acknowledge the evolution of the game (schemes, strategies), give the same acknowledgement to strength training and its importance to the success of your team. If a teacher teaches the same materials in the same manner every year, his classes get boring, the students tune out, and the chances for success are minimized. Under no circumstances does evolution equal trendy. Training systems that work (5/3/1, Westside) are the result of years of trial and error and perhaps, more importantly, time under the bar. They have evolved over time and will continue to do that. They aren't the result of taking the latest celebrity workout from a magazine, throwing it up on the wall, and calling that a training program.
- If you're going to pass off the duty of strength training to someone else, make sure that he or she has the credentials to handle the task. This could be based on any number of factors, but there are some constants that should always come up—experience (time under the bar as well as experience training athletes), background (related degree work or at least significant time spent learning from leaders in the field), success stories (who has this person trained and what evidence is there to support the claim that his work has made that trainee better), and methods (knowing how to design a program that achieves the desired results, doesn't overload the athlete, and allows for appropriate recovery). It continues to amaze me that teachers must jump through an always growing series of hoops to prove themselves as qualified, yet anyone who can locate a weight room and give the right sales pitch can refer to himself as a strength coach.
- Building off the previous idea of not allowing strength training to be an afterthought, coaches must treat it as a priority and set a good example for their athletes. The best example of this happening always occurs during the spring. You could spend all day in a windowless office, never see or hear anything related to what is happening outside, and then know exactly what the weather is as soon as you walk into the weight room. If the room is fairly empty, it's a beautiful day out. If it's packed, you know it's raining out. This isn't setting the right example for the athletes or their peers. Regardless of what the weather may be outside and regardless of whether it's in-season or off-season work, it must be built into the mindset of the athletes that they will be in the weight room on assigned days. Football, baseball, lacrosse, volleyball, wrestling, track, and basketball—make sure that they're putting their time in and making it count! Props to the coaches who not only understand this concept but take steps to see that it's enforced.
- Lastly, at least for now, don't drink the Kool-Aid without asking the right questions. A parent doesn't send her child to a private school or a particular college without knowing the facts, so why would she ever trust the success of her child’s athletic career (and really his health) if she doesn't know all the facts? Let me reiterate that there are some outstanding trainers and facilities out there who do an awesome job working with kids and helping parents understand what is happening. Unfortunately, those people/facilities are in the minority when you step back and objectively view the current strength training landscape. Comedian Tim Allen used to joke about not trusting a wood shop teacher telling you about safety when he's missing fingers. When you make a plan to invest money in something, know what you'll be getting out of it. If you want to use a private facility for your training, go for it. However, at the end of the day, if your child struggles to meet the basic strength and conditioning standards that your school program has set (and in many cases, the athlete is easily eclipsed by his same age peers) or your child's ‘growth’ has been minimal at best, did you get what you paid for?
That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Some people will agree, others will be indifferent, and some will be offended. If you're part of the group that agrees with me, I would very much be interested in hearing why that is. If you happen to be in the offended group, I'm very curious to hear what specific issues you have with what I said. If you're offended, then by all means tell me what is right and offer solutions to the problem, as I'm always looking to engage in a discussion that will increase my knowledge base and open my eyes to new perspectives. If you just don't like what I said but don't have any solutions of your own to offer in order to make things better, please refer to the opening paragraph.
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