Position Specific Drills: Defense
This Blog Post is Brought To You By: Goose, Man of Many Talents
Position Specific Training: Defense
When training a football defensive player, the 5 primary aspects of focus are: strength, explosiveness, footwork/agility, and reactiveness.
Strength is Part 1, this is where you lay the foundation. Building an elite athletes is analogous to building a house: you can't do without a strong, solid foundation. Therefore, strength is the foundation upon which you develop explosiveness, agility, and reactiveness. The athlete must be strong enough to: move their bodyweight effectively in all 3 planes of motion - aka frontal, transverse, and sagittal for you kinesiology majors out there - and manhandle and tackle an offensive player. Staple lower body strength exercises all athletes should do are squats, deadlifts, and lunge variations (just ensure you fit the variation of said movements to the individual). Pair these with upper body strength builders such as the bench press, pullup, overhead press, and rowing variations, and you're well on your way toward success. When performed properly in an intelligently designed strength program, these will get the most meat the bones of your athletes and set them on the road to becoming behemoths!
Strength training turns boys into men!
Explosiveness is Part 2. This is when the application of strength translates into moving faster and jumping higher. "Explosiveness" (the coveted athletic attribute) entails exerting a high amount of force really fast, as in split-seconds fast. To train this, perform exercises which force you (or your athletes) to move fast. This is where plyometrics and Olympic lifts come in!Plyometric exercises such as cone/hurdle hops, box jumps, vertical/broad jumps force you to exert high amounts of force in milliseconds.
**Word of Caution!!!** Olympic lifts are great for developing explosiveness, HOWEVER they are extremely technical; so technical they have their own sport! They are only to be done under the supervision of an experienced coach who can properly teach/progress them to maximize gains and reduce injury risk*. (*Note from Kelsey: and athletes should demonstrate proficient strength and technique in the squat and deadlift. The Oly-lifts should be reserved for strong, experienced athletes, aka, not the average high school athlete.)
Working on explosiveness is critical for all defensive positions. Defensive ends/tackles have to be explosive to get a jump on the offensive line to tackle the running back or sack the QB. Meanwhile, linebackers, corner backs, and safeties must be able to jump higher than receiver in order to break up or intercept passes.
Agility and Footwork are part 3. Here's where the foundation analogy starts to make more sense: the application of strength and explosiveness equates to improved speed and change of direction. Agility and footwork go hand in hand like peanut butter and jelly! You need to know how and where to place your feet, relative to your body, in order to avoid injury and effectively change direction. If you try to change direction and your step is too short, too long, or at the wrong angle you are putting your ankles, knees, and hips in a disadvantageous (and potentially injurious) position. A great way to start working on foot position and running technique is to spend a few minutes during the first portion of a training session on agility ladder drills, for lateral, diagonal, and change-of-direction work. Once you become proficient at the ladder drills, you can progress to cone drills on turf or grass where you work on changing directions in game-like scenarios.
Last but not least we have Reactiveness, whichis the culmination of all four qualities. Everything a defensive player does involves reaction! They react to the snap, react to the QB, react to the runner or the receiver, and they react to grab a fumble. You need to be strong and explosive to move your body fast and you need agility/footwork to react to the play and make something happen. A couple of training ideas would be:
-Reactive starts to a whistle
-Reaction ball training
-Reacting to the QB drill
-Sprint shuffle cone drills
-Cone agility box drill
Training doesn't have to complicated or use fancy equipment or techniques. Focus on strength first, then the subsequent qualities and your team will be unstoppable!
The most fun/dangerous reaction drills ever!
Concussion Prevention
What’s the point of making your entire body bulletproof with your perfect training regimen if you’re just going to sit the bench because of a concussion? I’ve seen a great deal of fantastic athletes brought down by a simple bonk on the head. Football is the most notorious of this conundrum and organizations such as high school leagues, the NCAA, and even the NFL are implementing precautionary measures to limit the amount of brain cells killed each year by concussions. With that being said, these organizations have taken some mighty (and some questionable) steps for the protection of their athletes. In today’s post, I’m going to shed some light on a few ways that you can help to protect yourself.
1. LEARN how to tackle. Knowing how to tackle corretly is one of the most fundamental parts of football. It happens almost every play. Yet not that much time is spent on technique drills. By technique drills, I’m not talking about hitting sleds or dummies, I’m talking about taking the time to teach positioning and mechanics. Take the time to learn step by step movements on get yourself low, wrap up, use your hips and drive. It’s a skill and technique should be practiced even in the off-season.
2. Do Shrugs. This one’s simple. Shrug variations are great for building some stability in your neck and keeping your head from bouncing around. Plus, they help you to look like Bane and that’s a win-win.
3. Strengthen your neck CORRECTLY. There are many, “neck strengthening exercises” out there that consist of nodding against a machine or weight attached to your head. These are extremely questionable and I can’t honestly recommend them. If you want to protect your noggin’ from concussions then you need to train your neck to RESIST MOVEMENT, not causemovement. Plus, it’s an old rule of thumb that every time you load active cervical extension (tilting your neck upwards), you kill a puppy. The best way to correctly complete this task is to perform manual resistance as in the photo below. Keep in mind that the neck is comprised of a plethora of tiny muscles and does not need a lot of force to get a training effect.
4. Don’t rely heavily on your pads. I truly believe that football would have a lot less injuries if players weren’t strapped to the teeth with force-absorbing equipment. It gives the athlete a false sense of invincibility and leads to people just throwing their bodies into the opponent. This creates bad habits and reinforces poor tackling technique.
Football Training and Burn Outs: Are They REALLY the Best Option?
Walk into most high school (or college) weight room during the football team's training session and a plethora of sounds attacks your ears. They typically include, but are not limited to: Grunting.
Gasping.
Loading and unloading of plates.
Shouting. (usually "UP! UP! UP! at an athlete who has horrendous form and too much weight on the bar)
The inevitable clatter and crash of weights falling (usually by the same athlete who was the object of the yelling).
Ah, the sounds of a Burn Out.
For those of you who don't know what a Burn Out is, allow me to explain. We'll use a pretty typical example: the bench press. The bar is loaded with five ten pound plates (give or take a plate) on each side. The athlete bangs out as many reps possible with that weight until failure. Then, a plate is stripped off each side and the reps-unto-failure is repeated. This goes on until the athlete is struggling, shaking, and gasping for breath as he pries the unloaded bar off of his chest in an attempt at one more rep.
Logically, does this sound like a good idea? Before you decide, here are some objective points to think about:
1. No matter who is doing a burn out, an experienced lifter or a younger lifter (which most of these high school boys are the latter), their form is going to break down horribly by the second or third "burn out" set. When form degrades, so do joints and ligaments. Isn't one of the goals of weight training to PREVENT injuries?
2. Not only is form degradation a landmine of ligamental explosion, but it also teaches the athletes' bodies to continue to
perform with poor form. Practice doesn't make perfect, it makes permanent. It's imperative the inexperienced lifters (such as every high school boy. I don't care how long they've been "lifting," they don't qualify as "experienced" if they haven't even been alive longer than my Chuck Taylors) learn and practice safe and proper biomechanics for lifts, especially compound lifts such as the bench press, squat, and deadlift. They won't be able to safely handle heavier loads (which is, by the way how one develops strength) because at some point in the future, something is going to give and it ain't gonna be that barbell. Teaching kids to just bang out reps willy nilly is setting them up for a long (or short) life of frustration and injuries in the weight room.
3. Consistently training for failure, especially in new lifters, fries the nervous system. It's really taxing and I don't think most coaches or athletes understand the impact these burn outs have on their field performance. See, the nervous system is kinda important, it drives ALL muscular movement. For example, the faster the brain can send a signal to the muscles to contract, the faster the reaction time, or sprint speed, or the more explosive the tackle will be. Having a fresh, charged up nervous system means faster, stronger, and better players.
Grinding out reps hinders recovery, which will negatively impact performance both on the field and in the weight room, again that opens the door for potential injuries (and losing games). The goal of a weight training session for football players should be to recharge and energize them and let them walk out the door with some gas left in the tank. It shouldn't be to run them into the ground and let them limp out of the door in an exhausted puddle of teenager.
4. Goose said it well in his article about pre-season training: "If the goal is to move fast, then you have to train fast." If a football player needs to be explosive and quick on the field, how is training dozens of reps at a snail's pace going to help? The body is remarkable and adapts to imposed demands (SAID principle). Simply, if you train the body to be slow, it's going to be slow. Again, isn't that the OPPOSITE of what weight training is supposed to do?
There are more reasons, but for now, swish these around in your brain and let them marinate a bit...
Now, back to the original question: does this seem like a good idea to practice with young, inexperienced, testosterone-fueled young men? (who, to be quite frank, need to be slowed down and taught proper form).
If we're focused on strength, shouldn't training sessions include:
1. 1 compound lift, executed with solid technique at an appreciable load for sets of 3-5.
2. 3-4 accessory lifts that are both somewhat sports-specific and balance out some of the inherent assymetries of football players.
3. Tight control on the overall load and volume (especially for in-season athletes) so as not to hinder recovery or overload their systems. This is a SUPER important point.
4. If time, some soft tissue work and some correctives to help prevent overuse injuries.
By managing to load and volume or each work out, the coaches can help their players recover (thus grow stronger and faster) as well as boost their confidence by setting them up for success instead of failure.
Hold onto your helmets because next week we're going to look at specific training techniques for the various positions.
The Importance of Understanding Energy Systems
Some clever and consistent readers might recognize this post from a couple months back. I believe, however, that understanding energy systems is essential to training athletes safely and effectively. Coaches that lack a basic knowledge of physiological responses to training and are unable to apply that knowledge are setting up their athletes for failure, at best, injuries, at worst. This is why we decided to place this post FIRST in our series for football players. I challenge to you, as you read this post, think about: a) the typical football conditioning sessions (football camps, practices, etc.)
b) contemplate the actual energy demands of the different positions, for example a running back has far different needs than a linebacker. Does it seem logical to train them the same way?
c) how can current football training sessions be adjusted to be more effective and allow for the desired physiological adaptations required by the various positions.
Let's dive in!
Energy systems training, or EST for you acronym lovers, has come to the forefront of SAPT's training programs for our high school athletes as new research has manifested about the importance of specifically training those systems. I advise you to grab a cup of coffee, this is a heavy one! (no pun intended)
Definitions first.
ATP- the currency, if you will, of energy within the body. ATP (adenosine triphosphate) is an adenosine molecule with three phosphate molecules attached. The bonds that hold the phosphate molecules to adenosine are considered "high energy" bonds, meaning when they're broken a large amount of energy is released. This energy is harnessed by the cells within the muscle to drive function (aka: contractions). Simply, ATP makes muscle contraction possible and thus the glorious thing we call athletic movement. (And, well, movement in general.) The soon-to-be-mentioned energy systems regenerate fresh sources of ATP (through metabolic processes not important to know at this point) and their ability to produce ATP varies upon the duration of the exercise, the length of the recovery period, and the number of activity bouts. THIS IS IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTAND.
PCr/Alactic system- Provides immediate energy. The first couple explosive steps during a sprint or the clash of a tackle on the line, the alactic system kicks into gear. it's important, for example, for football conditioning programs to include exercises that challenge the alactic system. (think jumping drills, acceleration drills, MB throws, etc.) Thankfully, near SAPT Fairfax, we have a turf field that we can perform running drills for our youth athletes.
*note* PCr stands for phosphocreatine. This is a molecule each of phosphate and creatine. The bond between them is weak, and the creatine will quickly relinquish it's phosphate to reform the ATP. It's part of that metabolic process I mentioned earlier. So, theoretically, an athlete that can replenish PCr faster, can use their alactic system to a greater capacity.
Glycolitic/lactic system- Provides intermediate energy. For example, in a 100 m race, the alactic provides for first 6-10 seconds and the glycolitic takes over as the predominate source of ATP production for the remainder of the sprint. Or, in a prowler race, the second pass is entirely glycolitic.
Aerobic system- Provides long-term energy. This can be anywhere from taking a long, leisurely walk with your dog, to the brief rest period on the field between plays. Technically, watching TV is an aerobic activity since all your energy is being produced by the aerobic system. But, for purposes of this post, we'll consider aerobic system as the energy provider for the recovery time betwixt exercise bouts in athletics.
The initial thought was that energy systems turned on successively: the alactic system fired up it's ATP production for the first 6 seconds or so, then the glycolytic system took over until the 90 second mark, followed by the aerobic system for any activity lasting longer than 90 seconds. Recent research disproved this and demonstrated that all systems are working simultaneously full tilt to produce ATP as fast as they're capable of from the outset of activity.
The amount of ATP a system can contribute is dependent upon the power of the system and it's capacity.
Power = the rate which a system turns on and can produce ATP. The alactic system can start up the quickest, which is why it contributes so much at the onset of activity, while the aerobic system is a bit slower to get rolling.
Capacity = duration at which the energy system can produce ATPs at a given activity level. The alactic system can produce a lot of ATP at a high level of activity, but only for short while; in contrast the aerobic system sustainably produces the most ATP at lower levels of activity. Which is why one can't just sprint forever: the activity level exceeds the capacity of the alactic system to keep up with the energy demand. (good thing breathing doesn't exceed the aerobic system's capacity!)
The 1999 study but Parolin et al. asked the subject to perform three, 30 second sprint bouts on a bike followed by 4 minutes of recovery. The researchers sought to discover what was going on at a cellular level. One would postulate that the glycolitic system would be the predominate supplier of energy correct? Hold onto you hats, the curious researchers found that, over the course of those sprint bouts, the glycolitic system's contribution decreased! Check out this graph from the study:
First bout on the left (A) and the last bout on the right (B). "Oxidative phosphorylation" = aerobic system
As you can see, the alactic system still provides the bulk of ATP for the first 6 seconds or so of the sprint, but the aerobic system steps it up in the last sprint and the glycolitic's contribution is paltry at best. It's suggested that the accumulation of the glycolitic by-products limits it's ability to continue functioning, thus the aerobic system is tapped into in order to supply the ATP. There's another study here demonstrating similar effects if you care to check it out.
Ok, geeky strength coach, how does this relate to me and my training? A majority of sports, outside of the endurance sports (cycling, cross country, swimming, etc.) consist of short, intense bursts of activity followed by longer periods of rest. Think of football player: the actual play lasts somewhere between 5-15 seconds, followed by 1-3 minutes of mulling around. Same thing with any other field player, soccer, lacrosse, field hockey, football, etc. are all short sprints followed by longer periods of low intensity jogging.
Even lifting is an alactic/aerobic sport!
Gotta recover from that pull!
If a majority of athletes rely on the alactic and aerobic systems for energy production, why employ training methods like windsprints, suicides, and sprinting 400s, usually I might add, utilizing little to no recovery? Training the glycolitic system (which all these methods tend to do, since the activity bouts are usually longer than 10 seconds with inadequate recovery) actually hurts these athletes. Without a well-developed aerobic system, the athlete has no choice but to dip into the glycolitic system for energy production over repeated bouts of activity, and as demonstrated, the glycolitic system is limited because of the build up of by-products. Fatigue and decreased power output are the only options at this point. Not good.
Since this month's articles are dedicated to training football players, which are, conveniently, power athletes. This information is a game-changer when it comes to training.
Remember the PCr from up top? The essential ingredient to a high-capacity alactic system? Guess what replenishes PCr the best during the recovery periods... the aerobic system. Not only does the aerobic system contribute ATPs, it indirectly supplies ATP by helping out the alactic system by providing it the substrate (PCr) it needs to function. Power athletes NEED a solid aerobic base in order to perform at a high-intensity level without fatiguing before the end of the game/match.
Whoa, now, Kelsey, it sounds like you're advocating long-distance running for power athletes. No, I'm not. Let's be clear, a jog now and then won't hurt (especially if it's a REEEEALLLY nice day) but it should NOT, I repeat NOT, be the main focus of aerobic training. This especially applies to athletes that already stress their joints repeatedly during their sports.
I would qualify that as "stress" on their joints.
At SAPT, we help build the aerobic base, then back off to a maintenance level while focusing on the power/strength component of athletic preparation for our high school athletes. I wrote about the benefits of training sprint work here.
To build the aerobic foundation, at SAPT we like to throw in cardiac out put circuits as a joint-friendly conditioning for our high-impact athletes (football and rugby players). Since this post is insanely long already and Steve did a spectacular job of explaining and providing samples of cardiac output circuits, I shall direct you here. The biggest take away is this little gem:
Perform the following in circuit fashion, keeping your heart rate roughly in the 120-150bpm range. Many people like to get way too crazy with these and push their heart rates through the roof (due to all the rage of high intensity training). Resist this urge, and take a moment to rest if your heart rate shoots above the desired range.
That keeps the athlete OUT of the glycolitic system's domain and in the alactic (the exercises) and aerobic (rest in between). Ladders are another great way to train your aerobic system without stressing the joints too much and build strength.
Another option is High-Intensity Continuous Training, or HICT. Once again, my amazing other half has a post on it (video included! Bonus!) here. AND here should HICT tickle your fancy.
Am I saying that you should never run repeated sprints? No, especially if you're a track athlete, but for the power athletes, maintaining a solid aerobic system while training strength will produce ideal effects.
Main Points to Remember:
- If you're a power athlete, the bulk of your conditioning work should focus on building the aerobic system through cardiac output circuits, ladders, or sprints/hill sprints (with full, adequate rest). A little goes a long way, so don't go crazy and sacrifice your strength for your aerobic training. Once the foundation is laid, one or two training sessions a week (max!) should be dedicated to training the aerobic system (especially if the sports season is in play, in that case, athletics will take care of most of it). This is a point that's going to go against the football grain; more is NOT better (we'll be elaborating on that later in the month). I see so many coaches running their athletes into the ground; it's not going to make them better football players.
- The glycolitic system is not evil, and still needs to be respected, however, training modalities that rely on the glycolitic system (repeated sprints/exercises with little to no rest) are not as useful to power athletes a) do not mimic most athletic energy demands, b) cause fatigue faster (thus masking true fitness or strength) and c) due to fatigue during the training session, injuries are more likely.
- It's still all about strength!
SAPT Tackles Strength and Conditioning for Football
Question: What is the first sport to come to mind when you hear the words, "power," "explosive," "speed," "agility," or "brute strength?" Why, America's favorite: FOOTBALL!
SAPT, with our impeccable timing post-Super Bowl, will be highlighting strength and conditioning for football players this month. We have a fantastic wealth of information that we're going to throw out there. It's likely that you'll find a lot of the conventional training techniques for football players (pro level all the way down to little league) will be stood on their heads and punted down the field by the SAPT coaches. We're not purposely trying to be revolutionary, but most of the typical "traditional" methods of training are woefully out of date. We hope to enlighten, challenge, and encourage football coaches and players to maintain an open mind as they read our posts this month and perhaps, we'll be able to show you more effective, safe, and efficient training methods.
This month you'll read about energy system training, position specific training for offensive and defensive players, concussion prevention and mitigation, tackling techniques, shoulder and hip care for quarterbacks and kickers, as well as a few surprising posts that include breathing patterns and yoga (WHA???).
We invite you to read the blog this month and see what can create and unstoppable football machine!
3 Tips for Pre-Season Conditioning
Today's post is a brain explosion from Goose Osorio:
It’s no big secret that most people HATE running; this goes for majority of athletes as well. However running is essential to most sports and may hinder performance if not trained properly or at all. Here are a couple of conditioning tips for athletes who may not be the most fond of running but need to stay in shape:
1. Prowler
WARNING: Prolonged use of the prowler may induce Prowler Flu!
Whether you do pushes or drags, the prowler is going to give you the most bang for your buck! It’s a versatile tool which can be used on almost any surface (road, track, grass, gravel, turf, and carpet). It can be used for speed development and work capacity improvement (conditioning). And as far as time efficiency goes, all you need is 10 minutes with a prowler to get a good workout. Here are a couple of ideas for prowler workouts:
-Push/Drag Every Minute on the Minute for 5-15 minutes
-Drag down, Push back for 15-30m
-High Handle Push to Low Handle Push
-Lightweight Drag/Push for Speed
-Heavy Drag/Push
2. Hill/Bleachers
My coach used to call these workouts “speed work in disguise”, they’re great off season conditioning tools because they improve both cardiovascular and anaerobic capacity. Hill workouts are fantastic for practicing maintaining an appropriate stride length when you’re in a fatigued state. Also, bleachers are useful for working on maintaining stride frequency, that is, how fast your feet make contact with the ground, when fatigued. Both of these modalities require a higher amount of force production per step than sprints on a flat surface. These are apt for athletes who don’t have a training facility, however they are dependent on weather conditions. I would advise against doing either an a rainy or snowy day.
**Also worth noting, when doing hill or bleacher workouts, take your time on the way down. The descent portion of these workouts can increase the risk for injury at both the ankle and the knees. Both joints are placed in vulnerable positions, especially when fatigued. Take your time on the way down and go wild on the way up.
3. ERG/Bike
Who said cycling would make your legs shrink???
If your back is against the wall on a snowy day and you desperately need to work out, cardio machines are a suitable option. The ability to control the intensity and monitor your power output (RPM) are rare qualities which make machines a viable option for anaerobic interval workouts. Take 10 to 15 minutes to warm up and used this time to feel out what your steady pace is, something you can maintain for long periods of time. This steady pace will be your rest pace. When doing interval workouts it’s important to keep an appropriate work to rest ratio. This means if you work really hard for 30 seconds you need at least the same amount of time if not longer in order to recover and go again. Here is a general guideline for these ratios:
- 1:1, ex. 30 sec ON/30 sec OFF. This should be used for longer moderate intensity workouts.
- 1:2, ex. 1 min ON/ 2 min OFF. This should be used for moderate to high intensity workouts.
- 1:3, ex. 15 sec ON/ 45 sec OFF. This is for high intensity/”all out” bursts
**”OFF” doesn’t mean stop and do nothing. It means go back to that steady pace and maintain it during your rest period.
All three of these options will get you in shape much faster than going on a long slow jog. Don’t overlook your aerobic conditioning but in the end you can’t get faster by running slowly all the time! If the goal is to move fast, then you have to train fast.
SPEED KILLS!
