Training for Football
Growing up, I played a variety of sports and fell in love with weight training when I was 13 years old.
Strength Development for Young Athletes
He asked how I approached training ninth grade football players.
Off-Season Football Training for the NFL: Working with defensive player...
In my career as a private strength coach, I’ve had the pleasure of working with some very talented players.
The Power of Sandbagging: An Interview with Josh Henkin
With so many other fitness tools out there, why the sandbag?
Log Jammer Training for Football
With high school football coming to an end, many high performance football training dungeons and gyms are prepping for off-season training.
Interview with Collegiate Strength Coach Specialist Joe Kenn Part 3&4
When you get Joe Kenn and Jim Wendler in the same room, what do you get?
Leg Training for Linemen: The Top Eight Lower Body Movements for the Bi...
One thing that absolutely baffles me about most football strength training programs is that everyone does the same thing.
The Top Five Sandbag Exercises for Football Training
The goal isn’t to be a powerlifter or Strongman but to become as strong, fast, and insanely explosive as humanly possible so you can dominate on the football field.
Conditioning—When and How?
Now that football season is coming to an end, many kids are looking to get stronger and faster for next season.
Six Ways to Use Sandbags in Your Football Strength and Conditioning Pro...
Here are six ways to easily implement sandbags into your football strength and conditioning program.
The Prowler: A Review
We are football and strength and conditioning coaches at a 4A high school in southwest Missouri. We are long time followers, readers, and users of EliteFTS and their products. When we had the opportunity to purchase three Prowlers from EliteFTS in May 2008, we jumped at the chance.
Importance of Fast Twitch Capacity in Football Training
With the beginning of football season, the long anticipated excitement for the early powerhouse match ups has finally arrived. Coaches get their first look at new players, and fans can see what they can expect from their favorite teams.
Econo Prowler Review
Team DOS just received the new Econo Prowler a couple months ago with the intent of using the hell out of it.
Beginner Deadlift Considerations: Conventional or Sumo?
The deadlift is the lift that a new powerlifter initially moves the biggest weights with and makes the most immediate progress.
EliteFTS Spotlight: Justin Cecil
Justin Cecil is a full time staff member at St. Vincent Sports Performance in Indiana, and serves as the head strength and conditioning coach at Lawrence Central High School.
EliteFTS Spotlight: Josh Bryant
Josh Bryant is a speed, strength, and conditioning coach. He is also a personal trainer who has works with many clients in person at Metroflex Gym in Arlington, Texas and via the internet.
GPP Considerations for a Six-Week Collegiate Post-Competitive Block
At Northwestern State, we inform our teams that their off-season begins once their season completes but not as a means of max effort or dynamic effort. This block solely works to reestablish their initial general physical preparedness (GPP).
Development of Division 1 Football
We believe the initial year in our program is the most critical to an athletes’ over all development. During this period, the strength and conditioning staff must implement the foundation for development.
EliteFTS Spotlight: Jim Steel
This week’s EliteFTS Spotlight features University of Pennsylvania strength and conditioning coach Jim Steel. Coach Steel is a former college football player with an extensive powerlifting background.
EliteFTS Spotlight: Shannon Turley
EliteFTS Spotlight is a new weekly feature here on EliteFTS.com where Q&A member The Angry Coach interviews athletes and strength and sport coaches from various disciplines in order to find out more about what they do, how they train and how they do business.
Strongman Versus Power Cleans for Football, Part 3: (How to Integrate S...
At this point, we’ve discovered how Strongman training can be a viable substitute for Olympic weightlifting to develop brutally strong football players who not only display explosive physical capacities but have explosive attitudes as well. If you’re anything like me, you’ve become excited at the prospect of training your athletes with the fun and highly effective exercises like tractor tire
Strongman Versus Power Cleans for Football, Part 2
In part one of this series on Strongman training for athletes, I made the argument that Strongman training may be a great option for building strong and explosive athletes and a viable substitute for Olympic lifting.
Don’t Forget the Basics
As a college strength and conditioning coach for nine years, I’ve come across many different types of training programs, and I’ve used many different types of training when working with my athletes. The one thing I’ve learned is that most programs and coaches usually try and put the cart before the horse, doing too much too early and forgetting the
What I Learned from Donovan McNabb
I’ll have to start this story with an admission—I didn’t play for the Philadelphia Eagles, but I did play a Philadelphia Eagle. Long story short, I played semi-professional football for a few seasons and made the All Star team. Campbell’s Soup took photos of all of the All Stars and selected the ones who looked most like NFL players to
Conjugated System Approach to High School Strength
This story goes back to the Pennsylvania State Football Coaches Association Clinic of 2004.
The Angry Coach Sounds Off
If you had control of everything in your football program, how would you set up your work week with regard to the organization of in-season practices? What would be the ideal way to marry the biological needs of the athletes with their game day needs (individual and group drills to implement and execute your game plan for the week)?
How EliteFTS Helped Me to Lift During Football Season
If you’re still playing football, this article isn’t for you so stop reading now. Just listen to your coach.
Defensive Position Specific Football Coaching Drills
In football, a defensive player’s success will depend on whether or not he can position his feet correctly to place himself in the best possible position to make plays. Foot speed is critical for improving athletic performance on the field. If a defensive lineman’s first step is exaggerated or slow, he will lose balance and be driven off the line
Strongman Versus Power Cleans for Football, Part 1
You might disagree, but hear me out on this. As an ex-college football player and currently a strength coach, I’ve found the utilization and teaching of Olympic lifts to be tedious, inefficient, and downright boring. As a college athlete, I hardly found the patience to learn the correct lifting technique for the power clean. Although I held the St. John’s
Delusion Tube
A few years after my football career ended, I found myself playing linebacker in a recreational flag football game in Long Island’s Eisenhower Park. This is rarely ever a good idea.
How We Use The Prowler
A few weeks ago, we decided to put together a roundtable-style article about the use of the Prowler…
Training Athletes: A Matter of Balance
The title of this article is a little misleading. It’s not about the balance that most trainers think about such as standing on one foot on a Bosu ball. It’s about building a physically and structurally balanced athlete. These ideas and qualities are what form the exercise selection of our strength program. Our staff has five major goals in mind
Why Does the Butt Kick Reign Supreme?
If you watch runners before a race or if you watch baseball, football, or other athletes warming up before a game, you will see that most of them do the butt kick (quadriceps) stretch.
Gain 31 Pounds Before Football Training Camp, Part 3
This strength program is a combination of several styles and programs that I have discovered in my ten years of experience. You will read about systems that I’ve learned from Joe DeFranco, Dave Tate, and Louie Simmons. You will learn philosophies that I’ve adopted from BFS’s Greg Shepard, Mike Boyle, and Paul Chek. I’ve learned a ton by training with
Does the Football Combine Predict Playing Ability?
Football coaches know that selecting a player based on combine results is a crap shoot at best. In this article, Dr. Yessis evaluates the tests used to offer a possible explanation of why the combine results are such poor predictors of game play success.
Gain 31 Pounds Before Football Training Camp, Part 2
On this program, you’ve got to eat. If you are skinny and weak, you need to eat a ton of food. And don’t just tell me that you “eat a lot.” I get this answer from many kids, and when I take one look at what they really consume, it turns out to be nothing more than a few slices
The Prowler Uber Alles
Did you ever take a good look at the shape of the Prowler? How about someone giving you the finger?
The Stretch Reflex
Many people refer to the stretch reflex as the key to explosive training. How it is applied, however, is frequently misunderstood. This article takes an in-depth look at this action and how you can better utilize it in any or all aspects of your training.
Gain 31 Pounds Before Football Training Camp (Part 1)
Football season has just ended and you’ve quickly realized that you’re only half the man you were in August. Losing 10–20 lbs during the football season is typical for most high school and small college athletes. But you’re not typical.
Keep It Simple Stupid (KISS)!
As a strength coach, a good athlete—let’s call him Johnny—lands in your lap. Do you wonder what brilliant programs you can create to make Johnny bigger, stronger, and faster?
Strength Czar: An EliteFTS Roundtable Discussion
With James Smith, Mark McLaughlin, Tom Deebel, Jim Wendler, Travis Mash, Julia Ladewski, C. J. Murphy, Matt Brand, Nick Zostautas, Kevin Deweese, and Tim Kontos
The Lineman’s Evolution
“The last part of progress is always easier than the next. Determination must be continually manufactured and tested.”
Lift Strong Excerpt: NFL Linebacker In-Season Strength Program
*The number of workouts that this athlete performed each week with me was dependent on the team’s practice schedule, meeting schedule, travel time & injuries that occurred during the season.
Football Speed: Seven Tips to a Faster 40
This is the time of the season when I’m sure you’re asked the same question over and over—how do I run a faster 40? Here are the top seven tips to increase your 40-yard time dramatically without having to run a step.
Acceleration, Part II
Speed is a product of stride length (the distance your hips travel in a stride) and stride frequency (the number of steps you take in a given time period). However, you won’t reach top speed by taking increasingly larger steps to increase stride length or taking short, quick steps to increase stride frequency.
Acceleration
In any sport, athletes need to be able to accelerate as quickly as possible to get to the ball or opponent first. As a coach, you must put your athletes in the best possible position to succeed.
The Making of a Road Grater with Racing Speed: The Linemen’s Evolution
“Real deference doesn’t come based on size and intimidation but on monster work capacities and real street toughness.”
General Preparatory Classifications for Division 1 Football
Although there are several different reasons for this, lack of time in the day is a large one (especially for the collegiate strength coach). Here at Northwestern State University (NSU), we developed a method for classifying our athletes to make their programs/training more individualized.
A Visit to Defranco’s
Like everyone else who peruses Elitefts.com on a daily – hell, let’s call it hourly – basis, I’ve turned into something of a fan of the site’s incredibly eclectic cast of characters: guys just like me, only significantly stronger, who’ve dedicated their lives to hoisting more iron than anyone else in the gym.
Letter of Resignation
This letter is to inform you that I am resigning from my position as head strength and conditioning coach. I enjoyed my time while at the university and feel grateful for the knowledge and friendships that I have gained. I feel I owe it to you to offer an explanation as to why I have made this decision.
The Secret Behind Their Success
While at the Syracuse seminar, several of us chatted about the gyms and teams that were always kicking major ass. They all had the same thing in common—attitude. This attitude spread like wildfire throughout the gym and equated to success, BIG success.
The Odyssey of a Collegiate Strength & Conditioning Coach
This article is designed to give future strength & conditioning coaches a better insight as to what it takes to get your “foot in the door”.
The Kids are Alright
Last night I closed the doors to my strength and conditioning facility for the last time. After over ten years in the same town and the same building, it was time for me to move on to new challenges.
Davidson College Football Program
Evan Simon recently became the head strength and conditioning coach for Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina.
Tales From the Dark Side: 13 Stories of Woe
Here are some actual stories from actual strength coaches. All these stories have been substantiated by coaches that I know very well and trust.
The Unmaking of an Athlete
I sometimes wonder if there are any prerequisites at all to getting a job as college strength and conditioning coach.
Barbell Bullshit
Maybe it’s because I found out the hard way that you must vent information through a screen door in order to attain measurable improvements every training session in the real world. Maybe it’s because I have been doing research lately on American training strategies and I got a swift kick of deja vu.
