Football Training

How would the training of a football player (at a skill position, say running back or receiver) differ from that of a sprinter? Would some sort of agility work would be used? (replacing one speed day per week?). What about lifting protocol? If a player needs to get bigger, would you reduce sprint volumes and up the lifting to accomodate this? This would occur in the GPP phase, I’m assuming?

Anyone have any ideas?

You have one of the best resources available … just a few clicks away - see Xlr8’s training for the pro-combine.
It’s all there man.
And I’m sure if you have some more specific q’s on that thread he’d be only too happy to help.
But start there and learn all you can from his posts …

I have actually been trying to find time to type up a more comprehensive overview of applying CFTS to football training. We’ll see when my schedule frees up so that I have some time to do it justice.

In general, you would have less focus on SE work. I personally like the idea of replacing the SE work with agility, but I believe that Charlie disagrees with this aspect. Some of it comes down to how much sport-specific agility work you get during team practices and if you feel that is enough.

Since mass and strength is relatively more important in football than in sprinting, you could certainly make a case for more of a focus on lifting and hypertrophy training, especially during GPP. Lifting protocols, I would still follow the 3-1-3 max strength cycles. Keep the reps low and the sets high…stay in the 80%- 90% RM range for most of your lifting and DON’T go to failure.

You can take a look at how I personally managed all of these variables (although I didn’t attempt to do any significant hypertrophy) in my training journal at: http://www.charliefrancis.com/community/showthread.php?t=196

Thanks for the props no23!

I’ll be looking forward to that X too.

I’m very much interested in the adaptation of the CF elements for team sports too.
How to incorporate more muscular end., agility, and Tempo. for running in non-straight lines etc.
I need to go through the forum review again too.

Thanks, guys. I knew xlr8’s training was somewhere, but I couldn’t find it. I’m really looking forward to you writing something on CFTS as applied to team sports.

Okay, guys, here’s another one for you. What do you think about football players performing their speed sessions in cleats on grass? Is this a bad idea?

Personally I like to do my speed sessions on the track with track cleats. After all, I’m trying to develop speed, so make the conditions favorable for that. If you think about it, this track work is actually overspeed work for a football player since you will never be able to hit those speeds in a game on grass (or turf) with full gear on.

You should have plenty of time running on grass (with gear) during practices.

I heard the 52 week football training workout book by Ben Cook is pretty good. Has anybody ever seen it or use it. I plan on using it next off season.

I have it…you would do better to make your own plan based on the information from this forum.

dadmonson,
Go buy some peanut M&M’s with your money. The book is a waste. Check out elitefitnesssystems.com forum and the excellent info here.
acudave