[quote]jtrinsey wrote:
Glad I could be of some help. I’ll try to stick to practical outlines of what I did this summer rather than speculating but I’ll add in a couple of the changes that I think I’ll be making.
For a little background information the athletes I train are all in high school (although this summer I suppose I will now have two outbound collegiate athletes) and were actually all females- not neccessarily by plan but because I am just getting my network set up in this area and that’s where I have an in with a few of the high school coaches who send their athletes to me. Their abilities are very varied, they range from a kid who is a 3-sport all-stater and will be playing volleyball at the D1 level next fall and a couple of freshman who might even be better eventually (both already broad jumping 8’+) to some kids who are just trying to make their varsity high school teams. At times these kids have to train together so I needed to come up with a template that was flexible enough to challenge both ends of the spectrum properly.
As I mentioned before, the circuits are comprised of 4 exercises and a drill starts every 2 minutes. One drill I chose to focus on was the broad jump- we did all our training outside so I didn’t have a way to test VJ and the broad jump is an easy drill and measureable so the kids could see improvement and also compete. The other was the med ball chest pass because I feel that is a dynamic movement that can help upper body power for volleyball, field events and basketball- which comprises basically all of the kids who train with me. So we did a one variation of both of these drills every time. So the circuit would look like this:
A. Broad jump variation: either regular broad jump or a broad jump holding a pair of 5lb plates or a pair of 10lb plates. This summer I’ll be picking up some X-vests as that should make loading a bit easier as some felt jumping while holding plates was a bit awkward. I also might do a depth broad jump by having them drop off a 12-18" box and do the jump. That would be for more advanced kids.
B. Med ball throw: We did chest passes or kneeling chest passes with either a 4lb ball or and 8lb ball so that made four variations.
C and D. Other drills I used were:
Sprint variations:
Mountain climber starts
Pushup starts
Jump back starts
20m sprints from a 3-point start
Agility/COD:
20m pro shuttle
3-cone drill (see NFL combine)
4-cone drill (something I made up)
Reactivity:
Hurdle hops
Unilateral triple jump
4-step bound
Double leg, 3 bounds (triple broad jump)
Scissor jumps
Jump squats holding 20#
Other:
Overhead med ball throws
Med ball scoop throw (keg throw)
I think I’m going to try to pick up some kettlebells to do swings with
I’m excited to see how the kids do with these kneeling jumps I’ve been seeing on EliteFTS.
One thing that really hit home for me was a quote that James Smith has made a couple of times that is something to the effect of “Most of the world’s elite athletes throughout history have been built by using a combination of jumps, sprints, throws, calisthenics and basic lifts.” So basically I just figured out what sort of stuff I could do within the context I had available. I do all my training outdoors so I can’t use a squat rack or anything like that so we just do trap-bar deadlifts, lunges, 1-leg RDLs and a ton of sled dragging.
If I had limited space I would do a ton of box jumps, broad jumps (if you have the space) maybe kneeling jumps if they turn out to be worthwhile along with kb/dumbbell swings and some of that other stuff. If you have a hallway you can do stuff like pushup/mountain climber starts and whatnot.
I tend to ramble so I hope that was all clear. If anybody has any questions I’ll be happy to answer and if anybody has any other comments or critiques that would be awesome too.[/quote]
That sounds like a good set up. I think I will give something like that a go. It will be pretty different to what they have done in the past but I think it will be of great benefit to the team.
Thanks for all this information.