Fall of 1972 and as a young coach, right out of college, I get my first coaching job in a small, Indiana town. I walk into a weight room that was just like so many others back then. We had a multiple station Universal machine and a quad/ham Universal machine complete with a wrist roll attachment. The multi-station machine had the usual stations; bench press, leg press with adjustable seat, a dip station located on the back of the leg press, a military press, a pull up/chin up station, a lat pulldown and an adjustable sit up board, complete with ankle pads. A very impressive weight room for that day and age. No free weights yet because very few football coaches knew much about free weights outside of bench pressing and dumbbells. And certainly no football coaches were doing free weight squats. Squats racks were unheard of back then, at least in high school circles. Most of the programs being used back then were cleened from muscle mags and body builders which we all now realize were a completely different world from football.
The first really good source of strength development for us came from two areas, track and field and olympic style lifters. The only problem with olympic style lifting was very few coaches could actually teach it and most school administrators were scared to death of liability so throwing weights around and overhead was a real sell. None the less, high school programs progressed through the Nautilus phase and any number of other isolation machines and into the free weight programs that became very popular across the country. Teaching proper technique became a high priority because athletes who got injured in the weight room were not the end product we wanted. Boyd Epley at Nebraska began an association of strength coaches called the National Strength and Conditioning Association, I believe in the beginning, and it became a prime source, and still is today, for coaches to learn and eventually even get certified. Now we have all types of certification available which also created another problem for high school programs because now, if you weren't certified, administrators might not let you work in the weight room, but that's another story for another day.
I progressed also with the times and attended as many clinics and talked to as many strength coaches as I could to make sure I knew the best techniques and programs for my athletes. I struggled with the squat and the dead lifts for my athletes as it seemed that is where we had the most technique problems and sometimes, injuries. We eventually went to dead lifts off of small platforms to prevent the stress at the bottom of the lift bringing heavy weight off the floor. The curvature of the spine was always a problem, forcing athletes to not round their backs. And, with the squats, we always fought technique, keep the back flat, don't let the chest sink. I think one of the best coaches for techniques back in those days was Dr. Greg Sheperd of Bigger, Faster, Stronger fame and who is still going strong today. But it always seemed to me that when my athletes failed in the squat, it was not because of leg strength but because of lower back and core strength. "Core strength", now that became the new catch phrase about ten years ago. Coaches began preaching, good core strength meant solid overall strength and the trunk would be as strong as the branches.With good core strength, more leg development could be achieved. That made perfect sense to me because of my own observations in my weight room of how our athletes failed. So, I began to focus on core development and any guru I could find to help me. We eventually developed a good program and our athletes made significant gains based on extra amounts of core strength exercises which did indeed carry over into their squats. The only draw back was the time element. With high school athletes, the vast majority of them want to get stronger and better but as easy as they can while only about 20% of your athletes want to spend the time it takes to make those major gains.
A problem, yes, but one we can usually work out. So, I seemed pretty set in my ways and we continued to do the extras. Then the holy grail came my way. I kept watching those world's strongest man competitions and had the opportunity to meet, on a few occasions, Bill Kazmeier. If you don't remember, Bill was the first guy in modern times (with great respect to those old world strong men like Paul Anderson who didn't get the exposure todays strong men get but were every bit as sensational) to do super human feats. Watching him lift and pull was outstanding. And when he talked about training he often times referred to the old methods. Now he still did squats and bench from what I observed, but the odd object lifting he did was great. I became a fan of old school training. Old school just means using odd objects such as tires, sandbags, stones, ropes and logs. All those items that in the old days, were the majority of tools available to strong men, not to mention the thousands of high school boys who grew up on farms. I remember spending many a summer getting ready for high school football and pitching watermelons, bales of hay, sacks of potatoes and running, jumping and climbing all over the barn and yard. Talk about strength development. Body weight lifting is still one of the best methods available to athletes to gain strength and something we can cover in another story.
But as I got more and more interested in it, I began to implement it into our work outs, at first as a diversion but later, as part of our daily routines. And that made all the difference in the world. I have always joined my athletes in whatever programs I design for them. I think the best way to relate to someone is to do the same things they are doing. Now, I ain't no spring chicken any more, but once I started this training, I could feel the difference. Talk about those fancy concepts like rear chain development and cross training and cardio, man, you get it. With my athletes flipping tires and squatting and lifting sandbags from the ground and stones and logs, oh my goodness! The back development alone is worth the effort. We now spend more time in old school methods than we do in the weight room. Using old school, the entire body gets bombed. When you're training the entire body with so many lifts and in so many different planes, it blast the body. Your athletes become so much stronger in every position that injuries are lessened and their athleticism grows as well as their durability. I like that durability because no matter how good your athlete is, he can't help you if he's on the bench injuried. I think this training helps tremendously with that problem.
The other thing about old school training is the time element, and I have already mentioned that with high school athletes time commitment can be a problem. With this training, you can get a lot more accomplished in less time and it can be a lot more fun. We always make a competition out of something, a tire flip relay race, a stone carry, a timed hold, whatever. It works. You'll utilize standard techniques also such as zercher carries, farmers carry, sled pulls, shouldering, "get ups", rope pulls and more. We have developed many techniques and programs to assist anyone who is interested. You can check out much more of our program by visiting us at http://www.osscoach.com. There you'll find programs and implements and techniques to your heart's content. Many of the tools we use you can get for free such as tires and logs. And, if you happen to be at a school where money is tight, much of this program can be achieved with those free items and a little ingenuity on your part. Contact us and let us help you develop the athletes you need or just develop yourself. This training is also tremendous for first responders, such as police, fire and emergency personnel. If you guys fail, people get hurt or die. This training will enable you to be the best you can be (with apologies to the Army).
Visit us on the web at http://www.osscoach.com and see how we can help. We also have some very first class affiliates on our site. Whatever you need, we'll get it for you. Thanks for listening.
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