You’re right. The problem with this thought process though is that most athletes (and let’s face it most people in general) never come close to their potential in anything whether it’s athletics, business, etc. (with the exception of olympic athletes) because of a belief in limitations. Does anyone here really believe that they’ve done everything they could do to be the absolute best at what they do (besides charlie!!), I don’t think so. Many of you who have done work with professional athletes (especially football players) realize that some of these athletes are just very, very gifted and have no idea how lucky they are and have never taken advantage of their “potential”. How many of us have done everything as close to perfect as they can to create success. It’s like my dad (a marine corps master gunnery sergeant and former series chief drill instructor for parris island, south carolina, basically hell on earth) always said: “Practice don’t make Perfect, Perfect Practice makes Perfect”!! I don’t know anyone who has done this with the exception of Jesus Christ (excuse and pardon me for this use if it appears blasphemous).
Take a look at Iowa’s S & C program. With the caliber of athletes they have, they should have no business being able to handle Michigan and Penn State 2 years in a row. Is it any coincidence that Michigan and Penn State are HIT schools and are slowly sinking, and Iowa is on the rise while using Conjugate?
You’re absolutely right. Iowa has one of the best strength coaches in the country. See this article: http://espn.go.com/ncf/columns/davie/1527352.html
Well, that might have just a little to do with Kirk Ferentz. Uh, I mean alot.
I think S&C is fairly important, but talent & coaching are by far more important.
You’re right, too, just being in the s&c business, we’re always quick to give the good ones all the credit!!
Well, both Michigan and Penn State recruit much better talent than Iowa. I agree that Ferentz has done a great job, but if you just watch Iowa play Penn State, you’ll see that the athletes on Iowa are a cut above Penn State’s. Given then players that Penn State recruits compared to Iowa’s, it doesn’t make any sense.
Well honestly I can’t stand Big X football, so haven’t seen much games. Maybe Iowa’s players were physically dominating them like USC did to Michigan, but again coaching is a huge factor when the talent levels are fairly even.
I agree, as a long time U of M football fan, it pisses me off to see what crappy work Mike Gittleson has done with some of the best football talent in America. I do not believe they squat, they do some benching and of course olympic lifts are a big no-no. I understand that in the past they have run off extra pounds off of even 300 lb.+ linemen on the nearby golf course with steady state, long(for them) distance runs. Explosive high school athletes come into the program and in a few years gain some weight and always appear to become sluggish. Some guys who have breakout years as Sophomores or even Freshmen(occasionally) really fade later on into their college careers. I think they only rarely perform physical tests on the athletes so they can’t see that they have actually regressed while in the program. They are successful because of superior recruiting and (some) excellent position coaching though I have some reservations about some of those as well. Most fans think only x’s and o’s and don’t realize how an inferior training program can make some things on the field next to impossible while obviously the reverse is also true. I suppose the reason fans think this way exclusively is because they can see they plays being run during the game and get a decent idea about what is going on in practice but nobody sees the physical preparation that goes on to “develop” or “undermine” the team. I can’t wait for the day U of M moves out of the dark ages in terms of conditioning.
Here is a sample workout from the strength and conditioning manual to one lowly NFL team:
Squat: follow percentage cycle
Leg press: 2x12
Leg curl: 4x12
Leg extension: 2x12
Crunches: 3x50
Neck work: 3x10
Shoulder Press: 5x8
Upright Row: 3x8
Lateral Front Raise: 2x10
If you have no conscience, then being a strength and conditioning coach for a pro team is a great job. Fantastic pay and few expenses (all you have to do is buy the latest Muscle & Fitness to decide what your team will be doing that season).
I should also mention that this sample workout is actually pretty good in comparison to a lot of the others I have seen.
Penn State never squats. Well, I should say, rarely. You have to be supervised by their head S & C coach John Thomas, and of course, 4 seconds up, 4 seconds down.
I remember seeing a sample routine of theirs one time and verbatim, I think it was:
Pec Deck 1 x 8-10
Bench Press 1 x 8-10
Tri Pushdowns 1 x 8-10
Hammer Pulldowns 1 x 8-10
Hammer Low Rows 1 x 8-10
Leg Curls 1 x 12-20
Leg Extensions 1 x 12-20
Leg Press 1 x 12-20
All in circuit fashion of course. Their sprint/conditioning work is almost equally brainless. 100 m’s on the track.
I think that just by looking at that program, it’s not hard to imagine why Penn State gets pushed around. Granted, there are many other reasons why they have gone dramatically downhill, but this is obviously one of them.
The way I see it this: With the scholarships being limited to only 85 per school, the traditional powers aren’t going to soak up all of the best talent anymore. Yes you’ll still get your pick of the litter. But the less prestigious colleges will get the B+ level high school athletes that would have been back-ups and special teams players on teams that recruited all the studs. If these guys are put on a good S & C program, they’ll at least catch up with the players who were blue chippers comming out of high school. Archuleta is a testament to this.
I read the story of a really gifted kid from high school. It was school sports day and he was out in front of the other runners during a 100m sprint. He deliberately slowed down becuase he was to self concious about his gift and ability to win. He let one of the other runners past. His freinds were not good at anything and he didn’t want to leave them “behind”. I don’t recall his name and well I guess he wouldn’t be bothered by that! A bum.
I don’t let my own genetics bother me and in the last 2 months I’m making tremendous improvements in srength. I will get there, wether it be as a succesfull athlete or coach.
I worked with players at an NFL team under a HIT program (unfortunately on rehab only),and, of all the players on the team, at the end of a year on the program, only one player improved his strength and everyone else declined- and the one player worked with me and Al Vermiel, did his own training away from the team and went through the motions at the team sessions.
I have always maintained, HIT programs are the refuge for lazy coaches. I call it the culture of the cubicle. (Difficulty planning a peaking program? Forget it! One set to failure all year and you’re done! Tired of all that supervision and spotting? Hey! With HIT, throw out your free weights, get machines, and post your one, year-long, workout on the bulletin board, and hide out in your office and “hit” the porn sites on the internet! [ What else could these guys be doing in an office anyway? We know they aren’t wasting time reading anything about the fundamentals of strength training or planning and peaking! Perhaps they’re scanning other HIT sites looking for excuses for when, not if, the plan comes up short. Or, perhaps, as I witnessed, they’re spending time with the lazy-ass trainer, talking about their home renovations.]
Does anyone here believe that coaches in successful programs around the world sit in offices while their athletes train? They’d be fired on the spot- except in the old Communist block- where they’d be shot!
As I’ve said before, let’s apply HIT logic to sprint training- have your sprinters do one all-out sprint and keep going till they drop each day (don’t bother to be there either). Gee! I wonder how that’ll work out?!
I guess HIT NFL coaches just want to keep their jobs. It does seem like the dumb and easy way out, but NFL players get beat up pretty bad. So, at least in that sense it makes sense to work with machines. For example, Riley has a “no-hands” routine for this case. In the off-season though, a player should get the hell out of there.
One or two other points …
Many athletes equate a improved mirror image as being the test of a good trainer.
HIT can give you that.
Big musces and bulging biceps.
So can many other methods, but the bottom line is that size can be impressive, but perhaps not effective.
This whole concept was discussed on the Charles Poliquin\David Boston Thread recently too.
Ironically enough - Charles Poliquin himself put it very well on one of his cd’s.
The majority of athletes are over training and being over trained, when they switch to a HIT program they can gain very well by cutting the volume drastically.
(It also allows more time for overtraining in all the other aspects of sports preparation.)
Charlie - would HIT or the HIT concepts have any role in sport -
I’m thinking here actually in rehab or the role of increasing muscle mass for a recently injured muscle group ???
The ON-SEASON goes on for a long time- far too long to avoid the ravages of idiotic training! Nothing will get you hurt faster than a program that sends you onto the field weaker than your opponants. One school, who’s S and C coach is one of the biggest proponants of HIT, claiming safety, registered the highest single-season number of injuries in the NCAA! I spoke to one of the athletes in this program- he started HIT training able to bench 225 for 24 reps and finished pre-season training able to do 11!
Your example is typical of how excuses propagate. The excuse for continuing with HIT is abetted by trainers who do NO REGENERATIVE THERAPY WHATSOEVER, leaving the already weak players unable to do any decent training.
While there will always be some injuries, if EVERYONE is getting injured, there is a ROOT CAUSE.
What school was that? I find it interesting because the Texans ALSO had the largest or one of the largest amount of injuries in the league.
I’d think that if HIT helped anything, it’d be muscular endurance. Guess not.
Sorry it took so “long” to get back to you. HITMAN training will shoot your athletic carrer dead. As drsquat would say. Dont get hit with the hammer.
-dr.sprint
I don’t think you’re being blasphemous at all. Of course, Jesus Christ is perfect. 
Your point is well taken. I must admit that my God-given abilities have not been exploited as they should be. Sometimes I am lazy. I work at it in all areas, but there’s never an excuse for it. Remember the parable of the talens (Matthew 25) and push on!
In my experience in high school, football camps, and now 3rd year in DIII college football, there is a trend that most football coaches or S & C coaches that i have come across have no idea on how to train an althlete. They always put an emphasis on a body building program, leaving out the running aspect most of the off season until a month or two before.
I just had to post this…
http://www.houstontexans.com/fitness/news_detail.php?PRKey=657
Check out the ramp