Lumberjak~
Arkansas and Florida have weightlifting as a sport in the spring. I am from Florida, so I will comment on it there.
You do a 1-second pause bench press, and the clean and jerk. That is it.
It was not uncommon for guys in my area to clean and jerk 1.75-2X their body weight at 17 years old. You can easily do a gole search to see what the meet results are for state meets.
Weightlifting helped guys who weren’t really track type guys to stay under a coach’s supervision during the football off-season.
I was a pus by my school’s standards (save for squatting), and my numbers were:
Senior year at 165lbs:
C&J: 275
Bench: 305
Squat: 365 X 12 with a BFS mercury beeper (no cheating, period)
Vertical: 36
40: 4.43 electronic
100m: 10.83 electronic
Speed really came from just always being in top shape, as I played Soccer in the winter (it is a winter sport in FL), and played pick-up BB until 11 most nights.
The thing that really helped me was the strength, as I am slightly rate dominant. We never did plyos… or rarely, yet we always had the top 3-5 triple and long jumpers in the area… and we are an all-white school.
Just a good lifting program which embraced the ability to keep kids competing in a sport aimed at the needs of football: weightlifting. As a strength coach now, I look back at what we did in HS, and my coach was on the ball… htis was in 1990. Way ahead of his time.
BTW~ since I rally was a pus according to weightlifting standards in Florida, I did track and tennis in the spring, not weightlifting. Better to be an All-Region performer in two sports than get killed in weightlifting… of course, where I am from, tennis players were considered fags… oh-well.
What I love is that this kid already benches and cleans more than his body weight at 14, and I have seen scholarship football players at 18 come into college not doing this…so funny. Sad is the disparity between different states and the fitness of the kids. Came to Indiana and many kids can’t even BW squat to parallel… amazing. But, they kick ass at Madden.
To the 14-year old from ARK:
Great job kid! Keep up the good work. Let the weight come naturally from eating frequently and working hard. During my four years in HS I weighed for football at: 103 (FR), 122 (So), 142 (Ju), and 165 (Se). I was 5’7 when I was a freshman, so I didn’t even make a decent girl. The weight will come… keep up the hard work!