How to begin winning in the off-season.

That championships are won in the off-season is a truism, but not for many of the smaller high schools and junior highs. The lack of facilities can make it hard to establish a solid off-season program.

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At Apollo, our freshmen have produced a 77-20-3 football record over the last decade. We have been blessed with gifted athletes and coaches, but our off-season program remains the key to our continued success.

We have nice facilities, but we live in the same world you do. We have to deal with overlapping practices, weather, and lack of space, but we have made it work. We have a game gym, and a practice gym/auditorium with a tile floor, and a clay track around our practice field. Our freshman locker room doubles as our weight room. The program focuses on weights, readiness, outdoor agility, and conditioning.

Our weight room contains an 18-foot by 16-foot workout area with black-rubber flooring cut to fit, and a wall of mirrors. The facilities include two squat racks, two flat benches, two dead-lift areas demarked by four-foot by eight-foot mats, two power clean areas demarked by four-foot by eight-foot mats, a peck deck scavenged from the high school, an incline bench, a dumbbell rack, and a leg-extension machine.

We utilize the hallway for two bar-dip stations, a pull-up bar, and a pegboard. It is crowded, but safe, and Coach Shane Smith teaches good form and a love for lifting. Our readiness circuit is shown in Diag. 1, and consists of:

1. Three-bar dip stations -- two sets of 10

2. Ten 12-inch hurdles -- one foot, two feet, two-footed hops, the same sequence laterally.

3. Three sit-up stations -- two sets of 25.

4. Two pull-up stations -- one set of 10 overhand, one set of 10 underhand.

5. Medicine-ball sit-ups -- two sets of 10.

6. Two peg board stations -- two attempts.

7. Front jumps -- two sets of 10 jumping on and off a stack mat 24 inches high

8. Lateral jumps -- two sets of 10 jumping on, over, on, back a stack of mats 16 inches high

9. Jump ropes -- 20 on two feet, 20 on each foot, 10 crosses

10. Four dot mat stations -- BFS dot drill.

Our outdoor agility consists of eight stations and a tumbling routine.

1. Crawl the agiles (trapezoidal dummies). We lay two sets of agiles end-to-end next to each other. We do two sets of bear crawls straddling the agiles, seat roll and bear crawl straddling back. We also do two sets of bear crawling the agiles laterally with our hands on one side and our feet on the other, seat roll, and bear crawl laterally back.

2. We jump on and off a series of three plyometric-boxes, 18, 24, and 36 inches. We do a high jump off the last box, land two-footed, sprint 10 yards, and backpedal back.

3. Running ropes -- one in every other hole, one in each hole, diagonal hops

4. Ten 12-inch hurdles -- one foot, two feet, two-footed hops, the same sequence laterally.

5. Jump ropes -- 20 on two feet, 20 on each foot, 10 crosses.

6. Square -- two sets of sprint, carioca, back pedal, shuffle.

7. Star -- two sets of sprint from the corner to the center to the next clockwise corner, etc.

Finally are our line drills:

1. Two sets bear crawl, seat roll right, bear crawl seat roll left, bear crawl.

2. Two sets bear crawl, shoulder roll right, bear crawl shoulder roll left, bear crawl.

3. Two sets bear crawl, crab around your hand to the right, bear crawl, crab around your hand to the left, bear crawl.

We vary our conditioning. A typical workout would consist of four sets of 400-meter runs plus 50 sit-ups.

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Basketball season presents problems of time, space, and weather that can derail your off-season program. Our athletic period runs from 2:40 to 3:30. We have three boys' basketball teams that must rotate into two gyms. A staggered basketball practice schedule allows us to use one gym until 3:30 while still allowing our basketball teams a full court for one hour and a half court for an hour. Our off-season athletes and their schedule are never at the mercy of winter weather.

During this first phase of off-season, from football to the end of the first semester, we meet all our off-season athletes in the tile floor gym/auditorium grouped by grade. We make announcements, take roll, and spell out. Our seventh graders do not lift in the first semester. In inclement weather, we will lift one group and work two groups through the readiness program.

Each group is scheduled for the weight room, readiness in the gym, agility on the football field, or conditioning on the track, according to the accompanying schedule:

During the second phase of our off-season, until the end of the fourth six weeks, we group our athletes by offensive football positions. In bad weather, we will substitute our indoor readiness course for outdoor agility, and run two groups through the circuit. We work out according to the accompanying Phase II schedule.

During the third phase of our off-season, the fifth six weeks, we change to the Phase III schedule.

Time and your future opponents are always working against you, and since it is very difficult to get bigger, faster, or stronger during the season, it is imperative to have a consistent off-season program with which to build a winning athletic program.

Coaches are resourceful by nature, and I believe that every school can make the space and time to build an off-season program that will help them achieve their goals.

I do know that the off-season work of our athletes and staff helps them improve their performances and translates into victories during the season. It's a great way to touch the lives of your young people every day!

Mark W. Malcolm, Football Coach

Apollo Jr. H.S. Richardson (TX)

                             Mon.             Tues.         Wed.

Phase I
8th & 9th Offensive Line     Weights          Conditioning  Weights
8th & 9th Backs & Receivers  Conditioning     Weights       Agility
7th Grade                    Readiness        Agility       Conditioning

Phase II
O-Line                       Wt.              Con./Ag.      Wt.
Backs                        Con.             Wt            Ag.
Receivers                    Ag.              Ag.           Con.

Phase III
O-Line                       Agility/Weights  Skills        Weights
Backs                        Skills           Weights       Conditioning
Receivers                    Weights          Conditioning  Skills

                             Thur.         Fri.

Phase I
8th & 9th Offensive Line     Agility       Skills
8th & 9th Backs & Receivers  Weights       Skills
7th Grade                    Readiness     Skills

Phase II
O-Line                       Skills        Wt.
Backs                        Ag.           Skills
Receivers                    Wt.           Skills

Phase III
O-Line                       Conditioning  Weights
Backs                        Agility       Skills
Receivers                    Agility       Skills