Ok in 1 word about Barwis. Certified IDIOT! Ok 2 words
People like Barwis are constantly giving me hope with what I can bring to the college S&C world. I had the opportunity to have an in depth conversation with the S&C coach at my school UMASS Amherst, and he is fully convinced that the Bench Squat and Cleans will alone increase speed. Mind you there is no running involved there
Very possible, take a 160lbs freshman and get him strong his acceleration speed will improve greatly.
We arnt talking about 160 beginners, a beginner will definately improve acceleration with improvements in general strength, i myself am an example of this. We are talking about more advanced athletes though who leave as seniors running the same 40 times as they came in with as freshman. Something quite unfortunate
And too often the case it appears.
I have had 2 kids go to college and actually improve their speed. This is 2 out of hundreds. As is often the case, they come back weaker and slower. It’s baffling. ESTI, Highlander, and myself have had numerous conversations that usually start with "you can’t believe what the S&C coach at (insert university of choice) has the kids doing. I just can’t get over it. It must be that in the collegiate and pro world of S&C, common sense isn’t common. Many strength coaches could take a page from James Smith and actually get an understanding of the energy system requirements of their respective sports. Maybe them crushing athletes is how they justify their jobs. ie. Look how hard they are working!
I can agree with this.
My junior college training was largely designed by myself. Right before leaving for a major D1 program I benched 2 x 395, hang cleaned 305 and ran a 5.10 forty. After going though winter/spring at the D1 my max bench was down to 360, hang clean 275 and ran a 5.61 forty. Endless push-ups, circuit style training, stadium stairs just did not work for me. Not to mention I got bronchitis (probably because I was overtrained) and had to train through that for 3 weeks as I could not shake it. At one point I needed 3 guys to lift the weight for me when benching 275 because I could not miss a single rep on the program. And that was only the first 6 months. Had plenty of teammates with absolute horror stories - some of them losing money down the track because of pure coaching stupidity and complete lack of understanding of recovery.
Just finished weightlifting testing for spring with football at my university. Went over all the stats from previous years and came up with a typical strength improvement rate.
1st year - 15-25%
2nd year - 8-15%
3rd year - 5-10%
The lower numbers reflect individuals who are lazy or have other issues that affect their training (sickness, got their girlfriend pregnant, academic problems, etc.).
There is no excuse for not having strength improvements every year. This includes athletes who are strong coming in for their first year. We had a guy come in with a 400lb bench out of high school. He finished at our school with a 540lb bench. Of course, I made sure he did less overall volume than the beginners and intermediate lifters.
Originally Posted by NumberTwo
Just finished weightlifting testing for spring with football at my university. Went over all the stats from previous years and came up with a typical strength improvement rate.
1st year - 15-25%
2nd year - 8-15%
3rd year - 5-10%The lower numbers reflect individuals who are lazy or have other issues that affect their training (sickness, got their girlfriend pregnant, academic problems, etc.).
There is no excuse for not having strength improvements every year. This includes athletes who are strong coming in for their first year. We had a guy come in with a 400lb bench out of high school. He finished at our school with a 540lb bench. Of course, I made sure he did less overall volume than the beginners and
The funny thing about it is that, not only does our S&C coach hang his hat on his lifting program, but there is a member of this site that i am friends with on the football team, who actually got weaker because the workload was way to high for him. So not only did this guy not improve everyone’s strength, but he also did not have them sprinting so no one increased their speed either. This guy makes 90k a year to hurt a program.
I look at certain indicators and gauge performance. Not that the bench press or squat or clean are direct indicators of football performance, but they do show a trend. My experience during college was that I went in benching about 365 lbs at 215 lbs. I got up to 235 lbs by senior year, but bench was over 475 lbs. Forty time was 4.57 going into college and held consistent around 4.6 even though I put on 20 lbs. Had I had any clue how to do real spped work, I think I may have been able to run low 4.5’s. This was 1990 that I graduated. Funny thing is, I remember our testing. Time in 2 mile run, bench, squat, etc. I sometimes think these S&C coaches get in their own way. Like the post above, losing .5 sec on a forty should get coach fired because he obviously sucks at what he does. I honestly think they just pound kids to show the coach their "perceived "value. Number 2, I love that trend. My high school kids get roughly 20% gain by year. They get to college and show about a 15% regression. It defies logic. One kid I had benched 285 lbs going into senior year of high school. He will be a junior in college and he benched 235 lbs over winter break. It was pathetic to see all that work go down the pisser.
Originally Posted by speedcoach
Funny thing is, I remember our testing. Time in 2 mile run, bench, squat,
Its kinda funny how the 2 mile test was used as gauge for speed improvements. Coaches just don’t understand that these lifting programs are only a means to create a stimulus to increase speed. Speed is the endgame. A friend of mine told me that lifting records were not even kept at Pitt because the ultimate goal is to get faster. Who cares if a kid puts 50 pounds on his bench and squat if he has not gained any speed.
I kinda agree with the quote about pitt. Granted I would like for that individual to get more weight on his bench and squat but my ultimate goal is to make sure the kid can move in all directions (linear and lateral) with the joint stability being very secure. Just like speedcoach said, the 3 of us (ESTI) are always exchanging info and griping about some moron at a particular university doing something to hurt our kids. So with that being said Im totally convinced that just because you have cscs behind your name doesnt mean jack! Dont get me wrong there’s alot of good 1’s out there but there some stupid 1’s out there.
Unfortunately, probably many more stupid ones than good ones. The egos over-ride the common-sense functions of the brain in too many of these individuals.
yep dopes
Originally Posted by Highlander
I kinda agree with the quote about pitt. Granted I would like for that individual to get more weight on his bench and squat but my ultimate goal is to make sure the kid can move in all directions (linear and lateral) with the joint stability being very secure. Just like speedcoach said, the 3 of us (ESTI) are always exchanging info and griping about some moron at a particular university doing something to hurt our kids. So with that being said Im totally convinced that just because you have cscs behind your name doesnt mean jack! Dont get me wrong there’s alot of good 1’s out there but there some stupid 1’s out there.
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I agree with u also, I think that people may try and get to “gimickey” with routines and and end may end up missing a lot of the important factors to improving an athletes speed. I have a college soccer player right now who about 4 months ago had horrible acceleration and also lower back issues. Just through a 7 week GPP we had him going from never being able to squat to squatting 225 x 8 with good form and his back issues went away. When we finally moved on to a basic sprint program, his results kinda just shot through the roof and attribute a lot of that to his added general strength. I think that the building up of strengths in a bench and squat based routine can go a long long way for almost all “beginning” sprinters.
If people kept it as simple as the following equation, they could excel at their job:
(play your sport + sprint fast + lift heavy) x (good mechanics + appropriate recoveries) = RESULTS!
Not Brain Science or Rocket Surgery!
It appears most create a “stew” and just keep adding ingredients and eventually they run out of room and it “overflows.” One of the best pieces of advice I received was take something out before adding something in. This helps me create a balance.
I just added a lot more plyo type work and cut back on the sprint work we were doing. Had I Kept everything, I would expect lots of problems.
Yes - I fall back on my Bruce Lee cup of water analogy many times. You must empty the cup before adding more water.
He also has a good one about being a sculptor and chipping away the unnecessary elements to find your masterpiece, not adding more clay.
My final piece of advice is the John Wooden quote. “The problem with new books is that we forget to read the old books.” I’ll be going through Speed Trap and CFTS again this month.
Well said by all the above. Simplicity rules. I believe Charlie said that being a good prep coach is part science and part art. The science speaks for itself. The art is what escapes most. It is knowing when to back off or push more. With my football players, I like them to hit big lifts due not just to performance, but the confidence it instills in them when they step on the field. There is far more to building athletes then just programming. Thanks to everybody on this forum for giving their thoughts and allowing me to grow through a collective experience.
You could write a book with that formula!
I would buy it.