I have become the asst. coach to a high school wrestling team. The head coach is new and will defer to me in terms of strength and conditioning matters. In fact because of his job I will be running the first 1 hour of practice. We will be in the weight room 2x a week in season. Weight training is limited, only one guy has ever done any training at all, but about five have been lifting with me in the preseason at my gym. We will be doing basic lifts like squat, bench press, trap dl, chinups, standing military etc. also, grip ab, low back and olympic lifts for the more coordinated guys (total body both days). I pass out sheets with the reps and weights they will be doing and since we have small plates available, typically increase 0.5 to 1 lb a workout. I was wondering if you had any suggestions as to 1. Tips to help organize 30 guys at once to make things run smoother and 2. Some of the GPP work that I could do or hints on ways to do conditioning on the other 4 days. What do you suggest. Any suggestions would be much appreciated. I know this topic has been addressed, but it was more from an individual standpoint and focused on strength. Now I have 35 guys to build up and also have to deal with endurance training off the mat that will get them into fighting shape. Thank you. They are very soft but will be willing to work hard to win. Anyone else with suggestions can chime in.
Structure and cadence of training a group of athletes is one area that is rarely addressed in magazines. If you can give me some idea of how much equipment you have that would be helpful. I look forward to hearing from you. In faith, Coach Davies
Because of construction in the weight room, we will work out at a nearby health club. Half the team (about 15 guys) will be in the weight room, the other 15 will be drilling/doing calisthenics in the aerobics studio which has mats.
We have 1 squat rack, 1 incline, 1 bench, 1 trap bar (trying to buy another), dumbbells to 100 lbs, 2 chinup bars, boxes for box squat, 1 seated military and a bunch of weight machines. I plan to make a 100 lb sandbag. Unfortunately a chinup bar and a place for the men to do standing military presses are all in the power rack where they do squats. So no group can do squats while a group is doing standing presses from a rack. My idea was maybe 4 groups of 4 or 3 groups of 5, grouped by size/strength. One squad could be squatting, another deadlifting, another benching, and spotting each other. Then we would switch stations. For the assistance work there would be more individual variety and it could be done in any order. They would basically be turned loose to complete these items as they could. Everything checked off on the sheet and then turned in at the end. The first 2 weeks we will be in the weight room 3x instead of 2x to allow for instruction and testing. As much as I would like to use the squat for a testing parameter, only 5 guys have ever done it before. So it will be bench press for reps. Maybe 75 lbs for the lightweights, 100 lbs for the middleweights and 135 for the heavy weights. This may give you some idea as to the current condition of the team as I expect maybe 15 to be the best in any class. Finding a true max on one bench with 30 guys will take weeks. Please help with ideas for testing strength as I wanted to be able to show the benefit of my program to the parents, head coach and administration in a tangible way by showing that the men have gotten stronger over the course of the year. Thank you for your help.
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you naturally need to spend some time teaching and coaching your group as they are just starting to learn the basics. Are you familiar with the Olympic movements? I would also suggest you use also use testing parameters out of the weight room such as med ball scoop toss, broad and vertical jumps. Stations involving bodyweight movements will also help radically during developmental stage. In faith, Coach Davies