DEERFIELD BEACH BUCKS FOOTBALL PERFORMANCE PROGRAM

Improvements in strength training have made the biggest positive contribution to football performance in the past two decades. This program will emphasize football-specific exercises that are designed with one goal in mind: to improve football performance. These exercises are effective in improving football performance because they directly correlate to actions and movements used on the actual playing field.

This program also emphasizes position-specific speed and agility drills in football-speed development training. The athletic requirements for a defensive lineman are different than those of a wide receiver, and different drills will be used to train each of them.

DAILY ROUTINE

The strength and conditioning program will consist most days of four daily parts: study hall, warm-up, football-speed development training, and strength training. Study hall will be mandatory for all student-athletes at Deerfield Beach High School. Study hall will be in the U.A. Lab (next to Student Affairs), and go from 2:45 until 3:45 each day after school. Student-athletes will dress out after study hall. Warm-up and position-specific speed and agility drills will be done outdoors and go from 20 to 45 minutes, depending on the training phase. The lifting session in the weight room will then last 45 minutes to an hour.

TESTING

Student-athletes will be tested three times in a twelve-month period. The first time will be in the winter, after the fall season is completed. The second time will be before spring football practice in May, and the third time will be before fall practice in August.

The University of Nebraska determined four athletic abilities to have the biggest correlation with football performance:

1. Acceleration- measured by 10-yard dash2. Speed- measured by 40-yard dash3. Agility- measured by 20-yard shuttle run4. Power- measured by vertical jump or standing long jump

This program will emphasize improving athletic performance in these four areas to best improve football performance. These four tests will be used as well as height, weight, and one-rep maxes for squat and bench press.

The top measurements for the test areas will be posted in the weight room. Student-athletes and coaches will then set goals for the next testing period.

WARM - UP

Proper warm-up is the most important aspect of speed and strength development. It will increase speed and strength and prevent injury. If you do not have time to properly warm-up, you do not have time to exercise. Warm-up is important because of the stress that athletes put on their joints when playing football. Proper warm-up will increase the flexibility of the joints and decrease the chance of injury. Research also shows that warm-

up before exercise will increase the speed and power capacity of the muscle, resulting in increased athletic performance.

Warm-up will consist of motor drills and stretching. Motor drills are used to develop speed mechanics. They will be done before stretching to improve speed, warm up the muscles and joints, and increase flexibility in the hips and legs. Most football players do not put enough effort into motor drills during football practice because they are not aware of the benefit of speed development. Jogging alone will warm-up the body, but we do motor drills to warm-up the body and develop speed.

FOOTBALL - SPEED DEVELOPMENT TRAINING

The most important aspect of football-speed development is coordination. Running fast takes great coordination. It requires running relaxed and maintaining proper form when running at full speed. Most players do not have proper form when running; and by improving form, speed will be improved. Improving form will increase speed by improving stride length and stride frequency.

Football speed-development training is used to make a football player faster on the football field. Football speed is not just straight-ahead 40-yard dash speed; it is speed in every direction. Different position-specific exercises are used, since each position has different speed and agility requirements.

All running will be football-specific interval training. Football plays last an average of five seconds with an average rest period of fifty seconds. The work-to-rest ratio is 10:1. Speed and agility drills must also be approximately five seconds long with a fifty second rest period in order to be football-specific. This type of interval training is more effective than long-distance running in building football-specific endurance. Speed drills will be done on Monday and Thursday, and agility drills will be done on Tuesday and Friday.

STRENGTH TRAINING

Lifting weights to improve performance in a specific sport is called strength training. We train to be football players, not power lifters. Technique is more important than weight. Proper technique will allow an athlete to develop more power and speed, allowing him to become a better football player. Poor technique may help you to lift more weight, but it won’t help you to develop into a better football player.

We stress proper technique through a full range of motion in each type of lift. Partial movements will reduce the range of motion of a joint, which will reduce flexibility and increase the chance of injury. Full range of motion training will increase flexibility and help to eliminate injuries.

The beginning level of the strength training program is used to help the football player to develop his muscles and joints to handle the stress of more intense exercises later on. We want to first develop a solid base and then build on top of that. We want our football players to peak at the right time, which is at mid-season. We don’t want to peak before or after that.

There are nine stages in the year-round strength training program:

Beginner- Base PhaseBeginner- Development PhaseIntermediate- Base PhaseIntermediate- Development PhaseIntermediate- Peak PhaseAdvanced- Base PhaseAdvanced- Development PhaseAdvanced- Peak PhaseIn-Season Training

No explosive lifts or running workouts will be done during initial phases. We want the athlete to gain muscle mass and learn proper technique in the beginning. A split routine will be used as follows:

BACKS and RECEIVERS

M- Heavy Explosive dayT- Light Base Strength dayW- day offTH- Light Explosive dayF- Heavy Base Strength day

LINEMAN and LINEBACKERS

M- Light Base Strength dayT- Heavy Explosive dayW- day offTH- Heavy Base Strength dayF- Light Explosive day

Andreu Swasey, the strength and conditioning coach at the University of Miami says that the major problem of football players coming into his program is a weak core area. The core area is the abdominals and lower back. It is where all of a football player’s force and energy comes from.

An offensive lineman may be able to bench press 300 pounds, but if he has a weak core, he will not be able to deliver all of that force. Without a strong core, his strength is useless on the football field. A strong core allows a football player to fully “explode” into a hit. Football is a game of collisions, and a strong core will allow a football player to win those collisions. Core training is a must for football performance development.

We will make opponents know next season that the Bucks from Deerfield Beach are the hardest hitting and fastest team they’ve ever faced. Our football-specific emphasis on acceleration, speed, agility, power, and core training will allow us to physically dominate our opponents and reach our maximum level of football performance.