Its NFL Draft time and that means we get to see who is taking credit. I think it was a few years ago in a blog post, Vern Gambetta joked that with all the sports performance centers getting into Combine training we should start slapping logos on the players in the 40 like a NASCAR race.
The sports performance field is notorious for taking credit. Coaches take lots of credit when their athletes do well. Its seldom they take as much credit(blame) for those that don't do as well. The lists of "we trained the top this or the fastest this at the combine, and we had the top picks" are endless. It gets nauseating.
My coaches and I put a lot into our athletes, and we are proud of the guys that trained hard, stay focused and had the best performance at the Combine and their college pro days.
We had 12 players drafted and 5 of our guys selected in the first round; Mark Sanchez, BJ Raji, Clay Matthews, Donald Brown, and Eric Wood. I'm happy for them and genuinely like each of these guys. They all are talented AND worked to be their best.
But so did a bunch of guys that didn't get drafted at all! I'm proud of them also. Some guys get drafted and don't put any worthwhile effort into their training. These three things; quality coaching & training, quality athlete effort, and high draft position, aren't always related. You can't control the talent you get to coach, the question is; what do you do with it?
There are private coaches and college coaches out there that will never get the credit they are due. We didn't do it in 3 months of training. Those players have been training for years with many coaches that have helped them lay all the ground work. The player puts in the effort. We try to coach them and guide them so that they can perform their best. Coaching is giving your athletes the best possible chance and optimizing the athletes abilities. Our guys all PR'd at the Combine, so whether they were first or last, I am happy with the results.
Showing posts with label Clay Matthews. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Clay Matthews. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Game plan and Adjustments
One of the things my athletes experience every year is the adjustment to my programming and coaching in the weightroom. We have 23 athletes preparing for the draft, and not one of them has the same strength program. There are many elements that may be the same on a given day, but we fit a program to each athlete, not the make the athlete fit into our program.
That means for an explosive exercise to develop Rate of Force Development we may have some guys doing hang power cleans, others using the Vertimax, and still others doing heavy medball throws or plyos.
This alone throws off many of the guys. They are probably used to coming into a weightroom with a “weight program”. The same exercises, #of sets, # of reps, what weight or percentage, etc… When guys don’t see this they can become a little unsure about whats going on. “Are these guys organized, do they know what they are doing?” goes through some minds.
We then throw them another curveball by not using a set number of sets or exact weights. BLASPHEMY! How can a good strength program not have an exact periodized program with a specific volume and intensity? As we explain to our players, IT’S CALLED COACHING.
A simple, consistent, and very organized program is important when in a setting like college where you have a lot of athletes, limited staff, and different priorities. We have the luxury to do it more individually in this setting.
To help them understand, we relate it back to their sport. You always go into a football game with a gameplan right? Yes. Do the coaches make adjustments based on what they see happening? Yes. They are coaching during the game. SO ARE WE. When we get in there for a strength & power session it’s our game time. Blindly following some plan written out days, weeks or months ago, without adjusting to the athlete, is ridiculous.
We have a plan. We go into the session with a focus, specific goals, and a planned means to achieve it. However, we individualize and adjust according to the state of the athlete. No matter how hard we plan, we can not control the athletes state. Did they eat right, sleep well? Did they stretch and foam roll as advised at home? Was it hotter outside today and the position coach did extra reps? Did they get a call from home and have a family issue? The list goes on and on. We try to manage what we can and help them overcome, but we can’t always control or predict.
If you were to look at my plan it might have 4-6 sets and an 85% intensity listed for an exercise. This is a target range. It means I want about an 85% OF THEIR CURRENT CAPABILITY TODAY intensity. Knowing what they can do helps, but on any given day that 85% is a different number. If everything is on, we strike when the iron is hot and don’t stop at a weight because a chart says that it’s 85%. Conversely, if the weights are heavy that day, we might achieve an 85% effort with less.
The number of sets can work the same way. By having a range, there is a volume I would like to achieve, but I have room to adjust. If that bar is still moving with good speed and technical proficiency, or the athlete is maintaining a low ground contact time and high height with each jump, I might keep doing sets. His results are telling me his system is ready to keep training.
This was the case the other day when USC linebacker Clay Matthews was smoking through his hang power clean reps. We worked up to the right weight, but he wasn’t dropping off set to set. . West Virginia quarterback Pat White was using heavy Vertimax jumps as his explosive that day. After each jump and a 2:00 rest, he did 2 jumps on the Vertec. Through his early sets his Vertec jump kept increasing, up to a 3 inch PR. While it maintained, he kept doing his loading sets on the Vertimax. When it dropped about 5%, we stopped. Both of these athletes did higher than the planned number of sets since the next day was a recovery day
This takes good communication with your athletes, and coaching tools to measure that intensity. Good communication means athletes have to understand how they feel. Most team sport athletes don’t. Football players have probably been conditioned to ignore how their body is feeling. So we have to teach them by asking, making them answer with a number scale, and then re-asking as they continue to work. That re-asking is important because what at first they thought was an 8 ½ ends up a 7 after the 3rd set.
Your coaching eye is the first and most important tool. Watching quality of movement and speed of movement are critical. For Olympic lifts, speed work, and plyos, your ears are just as critical since they give you important feedback about ground contact times and impulse.
The external tools can be basic or high tech. Using the vertec for jump height tells me about both the neuro and contractile systems fatigue. I also may use contact mats, accelerometers, tether-devices for bar speed, and video. Each has its place.
The bottom line is we don’t go into a workout with a sheet of exercises and numbers and follow it blindly. We have our game plan, but when its time we coach!
That means for an explosive exercise to develop Rate of Force Development we may have some guys doing hang power cleans, others using the Vertimax, and still others doing heavy medball throws or plyos.
This alone throws off many of the guys. They are probably used to coming into a weightroom with a “weight program”. The same exercises, #of sets, # of reps, what weight or percentage, etc… When guys don’t see this they can become a little unsure about whats going on. “Are these guys organized, do they know what they are doing?” goes through some minds.
We then throw them another curveball by not using a set number of sets or exact weights. BLASPHEMY! How can a good strength program not have an exact periodized program with a specific volume and intensity? As we explain to our players, IT’S CALLED COACHING.
A simple, consistent, and very organized program is important when in a setting like college where you have a lot of athletes, limited staff, and different priorities. We have the luxury to do it more individually in this setting.
To help them understand, we relate it back to their sport. You always go into a football game with a gameplan right? Yes. Do the coaches make adjustments based on what they see happening? Yes. They are coaching during the game. SO ARE WE. When we get in there for a strength & power session it’s our game time. Blindly following some plan written out days, weeks or months ago, without adjusting to the athlete, is ridiculous.
We have a plan. We go into the session with a focus, specific goals, and a planned means to achieve it. However, we individualize and adjust according to the state of the athlete. No matter how hard we plan, we can not control the athletes state. Did they eat right, sleep well? Did they stretch and foam roll as advised at home? Was it hotter outside today and the position coach did extra reps? Did they get a call from home and have a family issue? The list goes on and on. We try to manage what we can and help them overcome, but we can’t always control or predict.
If you were to look at my plan it might have 4-6 sets and an 85% intensity listed for an exercise. This is a target range. It means I want about an 85% OF THEIR CURRENT CAPABILITY TODAY intensity. Knowing what they can do helps, but on any given day that 85% is a different number. If everything is on, we strike when the iron is hot and don’t stop at a weight because a chart says that it’s 85%. Conversely, if the weights are heavy that day, we might achieve an 85% effort with less.
The number of sets can work the same way. By having a range, there is a volume I would like to achieve, but I have room to adjust. If that bar is still moving with good speed and technical proficiency, or the athlete is maintaining a low ground contact time and high height with each jump, I might keep doing sets. His results are telling me his system is ready to keep training.
This was the case the other day when USC linebacker Clay Matthews was smoking through his hang power clean reps. We worked up to the right weight, but he wasn’t dropping off set to set. . West Virginia quarterback Pat White was using heavy Vertimax jumps as his explosive that day. After each jump and a 2:00 rest, he did 2 jumps on the Vertec. Through his early sets his Vertec jump kept increasing, up to a 3 inch PR. While it maintained, he kept doing his loading sets on the Vertimax. When it dropped about 5%, we stopped. Both of these athletes did higher than the planned number of sets since the next day was a recovery day
This takes good communication with your athletes, and coaching tools to measure that intensity. Good communication means athletes have to understand how they feel. Most team sport athletes don’t. Football players have probably been conditioned to ignore how their body is feeling. So we have to teach them by asking, making them answer with a number scale, and then re-asking as they continue to work. That re-asking is important because what at first they thought was an 8 ½ ends up a 7 after the 3rd set.
Your coaching eye is the first and most important tool. Watching quality of movement and speed of movement are critical. For Olympic lifts, speed work, and plyos, your ears are just as critical since they give you important feedback about ground contact times and impulse.
The external tools can be basic or high tech. Using the vertec for jump height tells me about both the neuro and contractile systems fatigue. I also may use contact mats, accelerometers, tether-devices for bar speed, and video. Each has its place.
The bottom line is we don’t go into a workout with a sheet of exercises and numbers and follow it blindly. We have our game plan, but when its time we coach!
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