Football Experience?

Diet and Nutrition
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Hi, I was just wondering if any of you guys on this Forum are football players, and could give me any information on a good routine. My school just organized a BFS (Bigger Faster Stronger) convention and I got a work out routine from them, but I figured I might as well see what other football players are doing.

About me: I’m 17 I have one more semester of High School Football. I’m 6’2 about 184lbs (and growing). I play Quarter Back for highschool, but I also have experience playing summer leagues, where I played wide out, tight end and slot back… I’m trying to become a better player and I’m hoping to play in the NCAA eventually.

If anyone has any ideas I’d love to hear them.

Thanks,
John

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Hi John,
I played high school ball in Western PA where football is life haha…then I played 2 years at Air Force, then finished up at Colgate University playing linebacker (they are 7th in the nation this year and longest winning streak in D-IAA!). After that I was a strength and conditioning coach at Yale for 4 years while I was in grad school, and continued to coach after finishing up and becoming a cop (not all cops are bad! haha).

If your school has a BFS program, and is focusing on cleans, snatches, deadlifts, squats, overhead press, chins, bench, rows, push press, I think you will do just fine. I never did BFS but Im pretty sure they do a good job, other than getting a little cute with some weird variations of things. Stick to the basics, and train your tail off. Even though you are QB, dont let people discourage you from doing the REAL lifts…ie lots of cleans, full and hang, squats, deadlifts, squats, push press, snatches…get some plyos in there if you have someone with experience to show you how to do them without risking injury, and short distance sprints at full recovery, and agilty drills in interval fashion…cone drills, speed ladder, things like that…there are a few good books with illustrations if your parents can hook you up with some cash…what comes to mind is Complete Conditioning for Football by Michael Arthur and Bryan Baily, and Renegade Training by Coach Davies. It should get you off to a good start…dont let anyone tell you that olympic lifting or powerlifting type things will make you slow, or injure you, or ruin flexibility either if that comes up…and shy away from the bodybuilding mags for now…

God Bless,
Matt

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Check out this:

Off Season:
http://asp.elitefts.com/qa/Default.asp?tid=77

In Season:
http://asp.elitefts.com/qa/Default.asp?tid=81

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I also was a ss&c at d1aa school, I also train many hs and college football players in my area, my opinion on BFS is for hs athletes it is not the best way to go but it is not the worst by far, it builds a good base, I would say its biggest weak points are it dosent hit the posterior chain hard enough and it dosent bring up individual weak points very good, but is a good beginer program…big martin

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Snowman,
Im a Division III fullback. I’ll tell you right now, the first thing you need to focus on strengthening is your low back, glutes and hams (posterior chain). This should definitely make you stronger, more powerful and more explosive. Do lifts such as good mornings, box squats (I think BFS uses these), DLs, sumo DLs, snatch grip DLs, glute ham raises, reverse hypers, cable pull throughs, etc. Also, focus on compound movements rather than isolation lifts. For example, do pushing movements and pulling movements, or rowing. Things like arm curls and leg extensions wont really help you in terms of football, so don’t waste your time with these.

Keep up your sprinting and agilities at least 2x per week. Be careful with the volume on the plyos.

Of course, the oly lifts are a mainstay in a football program however, remember that you cannot be explosive without first being strong. Work on building as much strength as possible here early in the offseason and use the oly lifts on speed days (work on bar speed!!!) Then, as the season approaches, increase the intensity of the oly lifts.
You can look into the Westside style of training as Landon pointed you towards and you should also look at EVERYTHING that Coach Thibaudeau has posted on this forum. He knows a GREAT DEAL about training athletes.

As for books that deal with football training, I think the two best books that I can think of are:
1)Coach Thibaudeau’s book
2)Joe Kenn’s (ASU strength coach) book

The bottom line, expand your knowledge in the world of strength and conditioning. There are different avenues to take, some good and some bad. The more you know, the better you will be able to find what type of training benefits you, as all athletes are different in some aspects.

Good luck to you, athlete.

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I played highschool, D-1, arena to NFL level but didn’t get on this year. Play ball and get reps at your position, there is no substitute.
Next, I would say that the best exercises for a young developing player during the off season would be agility drills, sprint work, jump drills ie. depth jumps. A good idea is to run track and sprint. Speed kills, period. If you can, doing mat drills with wrestlers is agility meets GPP to an insane degree. But beware, sweaty men in tights, oh, wrong tread, NotThatTh…
Assuming that you are reading on T you should be familiar with the various lifts. Multi joint with a priority on hang cleans and heavy high pulls. Some trainers have argued that the catch is counter productive for football but either or, the cleans are your best bet. I didn’t lift with any discretion during high school but I would think that a modified Westside template using olympic accesory lifts would have been wonderful then.
The Westside basics, speed and max effort, adapted for football are easily the most productive methods I have ever used. I sometimes substitute my agility sprint work for the explosive speed day. However, I have found that the recovery type exercises like sled dragging must be done to promote glute and hamstring recovery and to prevent groin injuries.
Oh yeah, eat as to let your raging hormones do the most for you. Hope this rambling diatribe helps and good luck.

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awesome stuff from everyone!

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Just incase anyone is interested now… it’s 4 years later… and all of the advice I got on this forum has really really helped…

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[quote]snowman008 wrote:
Hi, I was just wondering if any of you guys on this Forum are football players, and could give me any information on a good routine. My school just organized a BFS (Bigger Faster Stronger) convention and I got a work out routine from them, but I figured I might as well see what other football players are doing.

About me: I’m 17 I have one more semester of High School Football. I’m 6’2 about 184lbs (and growing). I play Quarter Back for highschool, but I also have experience playing summer leagues, where I played wide out, tight end and slot back… I’m trying to become a better player and I’m hoping to play in the NCAA eventually.

If anyone has any ideas I’d love to hear them.

Thanks,
John[/quote]

I would suggest you get a hold of any of the Westside for SKinny Bastards templates. A lot of NFL or College Players are working after that and are making incredible gains. I adjusted the program to my needs (basketball player) and for the in-season (since I am in it right now). And even during the season, I make gains. I would say this is due to the charactiritics of a conjugated periodization method nad my adjustments.

See what works for you.