How Does your Strength Program Stack Up?

The 15 Keys To Success

PROBABLY THE SINGLE most positive development in sports conditioning over the past half-century has been the proliferation of strength training.

Every professional and college team has a strength coach. On the high school level, which cannot afford such coaches, practically every football coach has his own makeshift weight room.

Strength training has become the one common denominator in the conditioning of our athletes, both on the male and female levels.

A sensible and well-organized strength program provides four major benefits: It enhances the athlete's body structure, helps the athlete develop the skills required for the particular sport, prevents injuries through strength and flexibility, and helps win more games.

How do you know whether your strength program is positioned for success? To ascertain the answer, you are invited to investigate the accompanying benchmarks of success, to compare them with your own program, and use the information to improve your program.

The checklist at the end will enable you to see exactly how your program stacks up with the best and serve as a motivator for your athletes.

Remember, if you are not progressing, you are regressing. Take a long, hard look at the following 15 standards. Each represents a giant step toward excellence.

1. Is your program safe and well-supervised?

A checklist adapted from the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA, 1990) suggests that you consider the following points:

* Safety instruction, with demonstrations of safe and appropriate training techniques.

* Educate the participants in both good and bad techniques.

* Document emergency care in every training program.

* Make all parents aware of the measures being taken to protect their children (NSCA, 1900). Always male certain you have sufficient supervision for the number of athletes you have trained at any given time.

2. Is your strength coach certified and qualified?

From the liability point of view, you should have a certified strength and conditioning specialist in charge of your program. The documentation of this fact may relieve you from personal liability in cases of accident or injury.

A certified coach will obviously also help you achieve maximum results for your team. But, remember, the simple fact that a person has had lifting experience does not qualify him as an expert. The proper certification does. The NSCA and the American College of Sports Medicine are two such organizations through which a coach's qualifications can be documented.

3. Is your entire staff involved and supportive of your strength program?

It is vital for your athletes to know that your entire staff, not just the strength coach or the head coach, is interested in their development.

Get all your coaches and trainers involved in the weight room, and make sure they are thoroughly versed in the techniques and exercises of the strength coach. It is also a great idea to have them lift with the athletes.

4. Is your program based on proven scientific ideology?

This is another reason for having a certified strength coach. New ideas are constantly being introduced to the strength training community, and you will want your program to reflect such scientifically proven ideologies as overload, high intensity single sets, and periodization techniques.

Research and study the options that will make your program as scientifically sound as possible.

5. Does your strength coach communicate well with your athletes, staff and administration?

Everyone must be "in the loop" for your program to work. Do the athletes receive appropriate feedback? Is your training staff aware of the injury and rehabilitation programs being used by your athletes? Does the administration understand the equipment and facility improvements you need to make your weight room successful? Open lines of communication are vital to the success of your program.

6. Do you set goals and objectives for your strength program and your athletes?

What do you need to improve your weight room and how are you going to get it? What kind of goals do you set for your athletes? Do you set separate goals for the field, the classroom, and the weight room? Written goals eliminate confusion and keep athletes and coaches accountable and on task.

7. Are your goals realistic?

Asking your athletes to get "faster and stronger," is not an objective goal. How much faster? How much stronger? What areas do they need to concentrate on? Be specific; make your goals measurable and observable. Concise, well thought-out goals will help your athletes focus on the tasks ahead.

8. Are you training multi-sport athletes or weight-lifters?

Tom Kelso, head strength and conditioning coach at Southeast Missouri State University, reminds us that strength training and skill training are two different things. He believes that many coaches are still using explosive Olympic style lifts to mimic certain sport specific skills and that this practice is based on tradition and hope (i.e., cleans and snatches to mimic a lineman shooting the hips coming off the LOS in football).

There is no unequivocal scientific evidence to support this claim (Kelso, 1995). The conditioning portion of your program shall be for sport-specific training, for developing strength and preventing injury.

9. Is your strength program comprehensive, including all muscle groups?

Kelso (1995) further pointed out "all joints and body parts are important and all may be at risk injury-wise, thus accentuating the necessity for total body strength." He also suggested that many coaches fail to consider this in designing their programs.

Concentrating on the "major" or core" lifts leads to neglect of high-risk injury areas like the neck and groin. Avoid labeling lifts as "core" or "auxiliary" to make sure all lifts are equally important to your athletes.

10. Is your program practical and easy for your athletes to understand?

Avoid giving your athletes a workout card with only the prescribed exercises and the percentage of their one-rep max that you would like them to lift for eight reps. This will lead to confusion and the inefficient use of time.

Have specific workout weights, repetitions, and exercises already on their cards when they come in to lift. Review and update these cards regularly.

Does your program utilize all the available equipment? The use of all your equipment will help avoid long delays and add variety to the workouts.

The less your athletes have to think about, the faster they will be in and out of the weight room. Make "KISS" your weight room war cry!

11. Are your workouts time efficient?

Lou Stine, Director of Fitness at the Cascade Athletic Club in Portland, highlighted the benefits of single-set training. He believes that as a high school coach with a large number of athletes and a small weight room, long multi-set workouts were not an option. By using high intensity, single-set exercises, he made the athletes more time-efficient and more capable of making substantial gains (Stine, 1994).

This is just one workout format that can be effective for you. There are many successful lifting programs and styles. Our purpose here is to make you re-evaluate the long practiced idea of more being better. If your workouts take longer than 45 minutes, you may wish to re-format them into a shorter time frame.

12. Do you dedicate a reasonable portion of your budget to improving your strength budget?

You buy new equipment and uniforms, pay to have your helmets and pads refurbished, spend countless dollars on medical supplies such as tape and braces, but when was the last time you had your equipment inspected or refurbished? Is your weight equipment safe and updated? You would never use a football helmet from 1950, but does that piece of 1950 weight equipment have to last a few more years?

13. Is in-season training a vital part of your strength program?

In-season is the time you need your athletes to be their strongest arid healthiest. Randy Schrader, the head football coach and strength-training coordinator at North Scott H.S. in Eldridge, IA, suggested lifting two days a week, using a total body workout during the in-season.

Even if the lifting day falls on the day of a competition, he still has the athletes lift. At his school, the softball team purposely scheduled lifting on game days and went on to win a state championship in 1993 (Schrader, 1997).

We are not saying that you have to lift on game days to be successful, only that you can't neglect lifting simply because it is inconvenient to schedule in-season sessions. In-season lifting is the key to maintaining strength and preventing injuries to your athletes.

14. Are your athletes held accountable for their attendance and workouts?

Are your strength workouts taken as seriously as your practices? Do your athletes have the same level of intensity in the weight room as on the field?

Hold them accountable for this. Give awards for attendance and intensity in the weight room instead of awards for the "200 Pound Club."

Motivational awards in the weight room are a great way to excite all team members. Not just the "studs"! Unless you are coaching a weightlifting team, the amount of weight your athletes lift is inconsequential, as long as they are consistent and improving.

15. Does your strength and conditioning program receive equal billing with the other parts of your sports program?

Your athletes, staff, administration, and boosters will only take your strength program as seriously as you do. Light a fire under yourself and get excited about your strength program!

If you are not seeing your program produce results, re-evaluate and improve it. Give everyone involved with your program, you included, a reason to get excited! If they are not currently involved, they will be when they see what you are creating!

Build your team around a quality strength program. The results will be worth the extra effort.

As you can see, there are many factors to consider in developing a quality strength program. You need an edge, a tangible factor to take your team to the top. A stronger, healthier, more confident athlete can give you that advantage.

So, evaluate your strength program. Fill out the accompanying checklist and figure it out for yourself: Does your program "stack up" to the competition?

Acknowledgements

Appreciation is extended to Brad Cardinal, Asst. Professor of Sport and Exercise Psychology; Gianni Maddalozzo, Instructor of Exercise and Sport Science; and Trent Greener, Head Strength and Conditioning Coach--all of Oregon State University--for their contributions and assistance in reviewing the checklist presented in the manuscript.

Scoring

60-53 You have a top-notch strength and conditioning program. Necessary adjustments to your system are minor.

52-43 You have a solid base on which to build your program. Consult local professionals as well as the excellent sports journals and books available to help you fill the gaps exposed by the checklist.

42-30 Your intentions may be good, but you are neglecting many components of a solid program. Consider discarding your old program and starting from scratch.

29-15 For whatever reason, be it time, facilities, or just indifference, strength and conditioning is not a priority for your team. Re-evaluate your position and dedicate yourself to creating a successful program.

REFERENCES

* "Checklist for Supervision and Standard of Care," NSCA Journal, 1990.

* T. Kelso: "10 Ways to Improve Your Strength Training Program," Coach and Athletic Director, March, 1996

* R. Schrader: "Making the Transition from Off-Season to In-Season High School Program," NSCA Journal, 1997

* L. Stine: "Quality, Not Quantity, Strength Training: Current Research Indicates That Single-Set Workouts Are Just as Productive as Multiple Sets," Coach & Athletic Director, May/June 1994