Afm 12 13

You CAN Go Back to School Helmet Help
VOLUME 19
DEC 2013
0217+/<
GET
STRONG!
HERES HOW TO BUILD
A GREAT OFF-SEASON
STRENGTH & CONDITIONING
PROGRAM
ANALYZE THIS!
Self-Scout Your Way
To More Wins
CONFUSE THE
QUARTERBACK
To STOP the
Zone Read
GET IN THE ZONE THE O-LINE ZONE
INSIDE
Praise loudly. Criticize softly.

- Lou Holtz
Preparing for Advanced Level Training

By Dale Baskett, Football Speed Specialist
10. Drills Report: Conditioning Cadets

By Lt. Col. Mark West, Head Coach, Army Sprint Football,
and Paul Markowski, Running Backs Coach
12. Strength Report: Wyomings Winter
10.
Player Development Program

By Trent Greener, Strength and Conditioning Coach
University of Wyoming
14.
Safety First: Time to Recondition

By AFM Editorial Staff
16.
Coach to Coach: Preparing Your Athletes

to Succeed at the 4-Year Level
By Bryon Hamilton, Assistant Head Coach
and Offensive Coordinator, Shasta College
19.
AFM Subscribers Ask with Joe Daniel

Defensive Coordinator and Offensive Line Coach
Prince George High School (VA) Part II
20. Get Strong Four Proven Off-Season
34.
WHATS
NEXT?
Heres a sampl
Heres
sample
le off tthe
he art
articles
ticles
you can look forward
to in January:
Strength and Conditioning Programs

By AFM Editorial Staff
Covveerr Pho
5. Letter from AFM Getting Stronger

8. Speed Report: The Off-Season
to: Clin
t Jenkins
VOL. 19 NO. 10 DECEMBER, 2013
27.
Get Your O-Line In The Zone

By Dan Dieringer, Offensive Line Coach
Lane College
34.
Confuse the Quarterback (Part I)

By Rey Hernandez, Retired High School and College Coach
40.
Self Analysis: Self-Scout Your Offense

for a More Effective Game Plan.
By Rich Hargitt, Passing Game Coordinator and Receivers Coach,
Ashbrook High School (NC)
46. Back to School 2014 Coaching Clinics

48. Web Exclusives Articles only available
at AmericanFootballMonthly.com
50.
Managing Your Program:

Giving Players a Focus for the Off-Season
By Keith Grabowski, Offensive Coordinator
Baldwin Wallace University
The No-Huddle Power Pistol Ofense

Confuse the Quarterback (Part II)
Red Zone Rescue
Zone Blitzes and Coverages Out of the 4-3 Defense
Special Teams Practice Drills
PLUS much more including online articles for subscribers only!
Not a Subscriber? Dont miss a single issue.

Subscribe today and get 10 issues for the low introductory price of $29.99 (Reg.$39)
Ofer valid for new subscribers in the USA.
Online Priority Code: AFPR1310 www.AmericanFootballMonthly.com
LETTER
0 2 1 7 + / <
FROM AFM
www.AmericanFootballMonthly.com
A
i F tb llM thl
Editor & Publisher: John Gallup
jgallup@AFMmedia.com
GETTING STRONGER IN 2014
ow that your season has ended, its time to focus on what

you can do to strengthen your program during the of-season.
Last year in our December issue, our panel of eight
legendary high school coaches covered a variety of topics related to
of-season priorities including player and staf evaluation, working
with graduating seniors and methods to keep your team involved
and motivated during the winter and spring months. You can access
the article, Building Blocks and hear directly from these esteemed
coaches on AmericanFootballMonthly.com.
This year, we put our focus on what our panel unanimously agreed was their number-one priority
for the of-season putting together a comprehensive strength and conditioning program. Not only
to make athletes physically stronger, but to also develop the leadership and teamwork skills that will
be critical to success next fall.
In our cover feature, Get Strong, we present four speciic high school of-season S & C programs
including facility descriptions, coaches philosophies, program speciics and athlete motivation. From
the larger school with the state-of-the-art strength and conditioning facility to the small program
with the bare-bones weight room, there is something that every high school in America can relate to.
We also think that, regardless of your school size, you can pick up valuable tips from all of the coaches
we spoke to.
Theres more. These features are also designed to help with your planning and execution of ofseason strength training and conditioning programs:
Our Drills Report, Conditioning Cadets gives you drills used by the U.S. Military Academys
sprint football team.
In the Strength Report, Wyomings Strength and Conditioning Coach Trent Greener details their
of-season player development program.
In the Speed Report, Football Speed Specialist Dale Baskett talks about advanced-level
training in the of-season.
In his Managing Your Program column, Baldwin Wallace Universitys Keith Grabowski
shows you how to keep your athletes focused and motivated in the of-season.
Need even more? Then head to AmericanFootballMonthly.com where you can check out over 700
strength and conditioning articles dating back to 1998 in the worlds largest coaching library.
Any way you tackle it, we hope your of-season strength and conditioning program produces good
results and is a positive irst step for next seasons squad.
On behalf of everyone at AFM, we wish you and your family a joyful holiday season and a healthy
and prosperous 2014.
John Gallup
Editor & Publisher
Managing Editor: Rex Lardner

rlardner@AFMmedia.com
Design & Production: Scott Corsetti
scottcorsetti@gmail.com
Contributing Writers:
Dale Baskett, Steve Dorsey, Bryon Hamilton
and David Purdum
Director of Audience Development:
Charlotte Vann
cvann@AFMmedia.com
Video & Internet Coordinator: Mark Taylor
mtaylor@AFMmedia.com
Directory Coordinator: Carolyn Clark
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Phone: 561-627-3393 Fax: 561-627-3447
President: John A. Clark
Volume 19 December 2013 No. 10

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The National Lineman

Challenge was the
first event of its kind
ever conducted.
&!.4!34)#&).)3(
The NFL High School Player Development program presented by the National
Guard capped off another successful year with two thrilling events.
hroughout the late spring and early summer, the focus of the NFL High School Player
Development program presented by the
National Guard is the nearly 200 multi-day
camps that are conducted coast to coast and
managed by local coaches. High school football
players in underserved markets are given the opportunity to attend top-light football instruction
camps that also include character development
sessions all at no cost to the participants. Since
the inception of the HSPD program, the camps
have been the cornerstone of the efort to beneit
high school student-athletes across America.
Also in 2013, another aspect of the HSPD program expanded and served more high school students than ever before the Leadership Program.
Designed for high school football players who
have demonstrated leadership qualities in the
classroom, in the community, and on the football
ield, the one-day Leadership Program included
an advanced character development session led
by representatives from NFL Player Engagement,
a community service activity, and team building
activities in conjunction with the National Guards
leadership reaction course. Considering the impact the HSPD Leadership Program has had with
the leaders of tomorrow, its a worthwhile addition to the HSPD program that will pay increasing
dividends in upcoming years.
www.nflhspd.com
When the grassroots events of the HSPD calendar conclude, the national events take the stage,
starting with the National 7-on-7 Tournament,
which was conducted this year for the 10th time.
ELITE COMPETITION
There has been a dramatic increase in the
number of 7-on-7 events in recent years as
coaches have come to support the idea of players getting pre-season work on their passing
game skills and players have embraced the opportunity to showcase their talents and remain
in top condition.
No 7-on-7 competition has a greater impact
or a higher national proile than the HSPD National 7-on-7 Tournament. The initial phase of
the competition is hosted by individual NFL
teams throughout the 32 NFL markets. Teams of
12 athletes and two coaches often the premier

athletes in the region compete for the honor
of representing their NFL team in the National
7-on-7 Tournament.
The competition at the regional level is intense,
partly because the rewards of winning are so great.
Each athlete and coach on the winning team receives an all-expenses-paid trip to the National
7-on-7 Tournament, which for many will be the experience of a lifetime. There, they enjoy four days
and three nights of special events and activities
and, of course, the thrill of competing against 31
other teams for the HSPD National Championship.
At this years National 7-on-7 Tournament,
which was hosted by the Cleveland Browns organization at their practice facility in Berea, Ohio, beginning on July 11, the biggest question coming
into the event was could anyone beat Miami. The
team representing the Dolphins had taken home
the title in the previous four National 7-on-7 Tournaments and came to the 2013 event as the heavy
favorite to continue their championship run.
At the opening dinner, the 384 participating
athletes and 64 coaches were welcomed to the
event by famed former NFL receiver Billy White
Shoes Johnson, who is a Regional Director of
the HSPD program. Later in the event, NFL Ambassadors including Tony Stewart, Pete Mitchell,
Luther Ellis, and Antonio Freeman delivered the
Special Advertising Feature
NFL Prep Leadership presentation to breakout

groups of athletes and coaches. As with all HSPD
events, there is an emphasis on developing
strong character so that athletes can be successful in the classroom, in the community, and at
home in addition to the playing ield.
The irst day of 7-on-7 competition featured
round robin play where each team played ive
games three against teams representing the
other teams in their NFL division and two against
opponents from the other conference for a total
of 80 games. Two more round robin games were
played by each team on day two before all 32
teams were seeded within their divisions to begin the ive-round single elimination tournament
for the championship. The Vikings and the Eagles
both went undefeated in round robin play and
the defending champion Dolphins cruised to a
6-1 mark, each earning #1 seeds in their divisions.
In single elimination, the AFC side of the
bracket went according to form, with the Dolphins going 4-0 to again advance to the championship game. In the NFC, however, upsets were
the order of the day. The Lions, who were only
3-4 in round robin play, knocked of the Vikings
to advance from the NFC North and prevailed
over the favored Eagles and Rams to reach the
championship contest against the Dolphins.
In likely the biggest upset in HSPD National
7-on-7 Tournament history, the Lions beat the Dolphins 24-14 to end their four-year run as champions and took the championship home to Detroit.
Their victory concluded another successful tournament in what has become the largest and most
prestigious 7-on-7 competition in the country.
events where athletes competed for a team time

included farmers walk relay, sand bag carry and
obstacle course.
The most intense events of the Challenge the
tug-of-war and the tire tug concluded the days
competition. When the inal scores were tabulated, the Cleveland Browns were declared the winners with the Cincinnati Bengals a close second.
LINEMEN LEAD THE WAY

In 2012, the HSPD program introduced a pilot leadership program for linemen that allowed
them to participate in a national event similar to
the National 7-on-7 Tournament. This year, the
National Lineman Challenge was introduced.
This expanded program allowed for both leadership training and a competitive element in
HSPDs irst-ever national team event for linemen, which took place at the Browns practice
facility following the 7-on-7 tournament.
Prior to the competition, the participants were
captivated by the NFL Prep Leadership presentation given by NFL Ambassadors Antonio Freeman
and Chris Draft. In addition, the athletes took part
in the Dream Season program where they had the
opportunity to give back to the community by
working with special needs individuals.
Eight teams of six players took part in the Lineman Challenge, representing various NFL teams.
The events were designed to measure speed,
strength, and athletic abilities linemen must possess to be successful. Individually scored events,
where athletes scores or times were totaled to
determine winning teams, included shuttle drills,
medicine ball toss and broad jump. Additional
The Detroit Lions captured

the 2013 National 7-on-7
championship.
While not as large as the National 7-on-7 Tournament, the 2013 HSPD National Lineman Challenge established a model for future events that
provide linemen with the same opportunity to
represent their NFL cities in a national competition with worthwhile companion events. Together, the two national championships were a itting
conclusion to another great year of the NFL High
School Player Development program presented
by the National Guard. S
4(%'5!2$ "
).30)2%3
eginning with the HSPD camps and the Leadership Program events around the country and culminating at the National 7-on-7 Tournament, the National Guard plays a very active role in the
HSPD program. Representatives of the Guard are present at every event and take a leadership role
in character development sessions, community activities, and leadership training.
Frequently, a National Guardsman will be a major inspiration to the participating athletes. That was
the case at the closing banquet of the HSPD National 7-on-7 Tournament, where Brigadier General
John Harris addressed the group. General Harris, who is the Assistant Adjutant General for the Ohio
National Guard, based his presentation on the importance of trust the
foundation of teamwork.
Trust is created by two components competence and character,
commented General Harris. Competence is the Xs and Os aspect. Its
speed, strength and knowledge of the game. Character is the individuals
commitment to his or her values and virtues.
As the General progressed, it was clear that he impressed and inspired
the audience of athletes, as they could easily relate to his topics and
themes. We must not confuse our character with the faade we create
for others, he said. We should invest our time in assessing ourselves and
building our own character and spend less time crafting the person we
want others to think we are. All agreed that it was a powerful and captivating talk from an inspirational leader.
GET INVOLVED Getting involved in the NFL HSPD program lets you give back to the game, gives your players a chance to compete in the
National 7-on-7 Tournament, and provides young athletes with a great opportunity to become better football players and better individuals.
Visit www.NFLHSPD.com and enter the promo code AFM1013.

Special Advertising Feature
www.nflhspd.com
REPORT
SPEED
Presented by Samson 800-472-6766
www.samsonequipment.com
4(%/&& 3%!3/.
0REPARINGFOR!DVANCED,EVEL4RAINING
By Dale Baskett
Football Speed Specialist
hen you begin the of-season with

speed training, one of your major
challenges will be organizing and
periodizing your product. Obviously your periodization scheme stretches over many months.
Your design is critical to the success of the progression you expect to gain during the year. One
area that can be a little tricky and can have a distinct afect on your development for team speed
is working with large numbers of players who are
at two diferent levels of ability.
My experience with this stems from putting
the varsity and junior varsity groups together for
training at the same time. The outcome favors
neither group. The older kids have greater experience and are in need of advanced skill drills
and formats that address their talent level. When
you apply such procedures, the young learner
has a limited foundational aptitude to handle
the skill demands. So both lose and so does your
program development. The same is true for the
more experienced athlete who is in need of advanced implementation. The best solution for
this dilemma is to divide and conquer.
They both must be working apart. How you
do this is, as stated earlier, tricky. I train someone
else to work with base foundational application for the new kids and I handle the advanced
group. This works well for all concerned. The system is set up so the younger kids who excel can
move up to the advanced group as they show
the skill as the of-season progresses. Its a great
incentive plan for those who want to achieve and
it bolsters conidence. The other way is to divide
the groups side by side one group runs and
then the other group runs. This is a tough project to pull of but Ive done it many times. The
division is really the quality route. The following
thoughts and suggestions will hopefully help
you construct your system to function adequately throughout the year. This article is designed to
cover ideas that will help you formulate ways to
assemble good sound training practicum that
you can use for your program demands based
on your individual situations.
ture often because of its relativity to human

movement. Human movement has consistent
biomechanical applications which are governing
and must be applied right for maximal success.
1. Periodization: Its Critical
So much is made of resisted (load work) and

assisted (assisting velocity movement) sprint
training when people talk speed training. They
both can have a positive afect on development;
however, as I view the speed world it is often applied incorrectly. First, for the application there
is usually too much resistance and the modality lasts all year long. Resistance for speed work
must be a minimal resistance to the velocity.
They cannot be so taxing that technique and velocity are hampered, which defeats the purpose
of applying force and frequency during sprint
activities. So think about the upcoming season
and how you will arrange the resistance modes.
Secondly, you need to look at the time frames
for utilizing resistance work. The early part of the
of-season is best to acclimate the understanding of force application necessary for speed, acceleration and burst characteristics. This goes
Hard start, softer inish. Easy start, harder inish. Take your pick but one thing is for sure you
must begin with fundamentals. This structure
provides consistent development and secure
control for athletic speed and movement. Football speed is diferent than linear sprint speed
as we have discussed in past issues. It is truely
a diferent training process and multi-dynamic
in nature compared to linear speed work. This is
why the foundation training for mechanical execution must be the irst thing you address.
2. Foundation Principles
The foundational principles applied will carry
over to everything you do performance wise.
Youll also be relecting back to the base struc-
3. Load Work Early
along with the foundation of mechanics being

schooled early, as well, during this period. If you
roll into March and are still using resisted applications thats okay but as long as by April youre
completed with the application.
4. Assisted Speed Training

Assisted speed work is usually done with some
type of towing tool that creates greater velocity
than one can individually perpetuate on their own
accord. The two things that I suggest if using this
type of training is that you use a form of assistance
that can somewhat enhance velocity but not over
do it. Too much speed, even though it attacks the
nervous system, can inhibit the technical function
that is paramount to speed development. Too
often people make more of this application than
is necessary. Force application and frequency are
far more important to football speed than top
end speed enhancement to the nervous system.
Thats not to say that the neural system isnt the
key to physiological development, because it is.
However the sport of football is reliant upon maximizing acceleration, quickness, and displacement
of body mass with velocity control. To spend too
much time on high-end velocity will be counterproductive to football speed. Let me plead my
case briely. Ive worked with world-class sprinters, including one, Michael Bates, a ive-time AllPro kick return specialist while with the Carolina
Panthers and now retired. He was a bronze medalist in the 1992 Olympics and a football player who
was cut from two football teams in the NFL until
he learned how to displace linear momentum.
God knows he had plenty of linear speed. Displacing momentum is a skill and many who have great
linear speed dont possess the movement skill. So
dont spend too much of your of season on linear
speed. Football is about multi-movement speed.
I had a call tonight from a dad who had a kid
in high school who is a six foot, 180 pound linebacker playing varsity football. He runs a 5.1, 40
yard dash and his dad said he would like to see
him run a 4.7, which would put him into the mix
with the other backers on his team. My comment
to him was how often as a linebacker does he run
40 yards when the ball is snapped? The answer
was obvious. The prescription would be how
quick is he and how well does he move laterally
and change direction with mass velocity when
the ball is snapped. Visualize what speciicity
speed is and apply it whenever necessary. S
Coach Baskett began his career as a football speed coach in 1979. During the last 34
years hes consulted and trained hundreds of
coaches and thousands of athletes nationwide. In the last year he has worked directly
with high schools in California, Texas, Minnesota, Kansas, and Pennsylvania. Over the last few years
he has also consulted with Texas Tech, Ohio State, USC,
University of Washington, and the University of Mount
Union. You can reach him directly for more information or
if you have speciic questions on your training program.
Coach Baskett is at dbspeedt@hotmail.com and 858568-3751.
REPORT
DRILLS
CONDITIONING CADETS
West Point Sprint Footballs Out-of-Season Drill Training
By Lt. Col. Mark West Head Coach Army Sprint Football
and Paul Markowski Running Backs Coach
he phrase of-season has a little different meaning at the United States

Military Academy than it may have at
other colleges. In fact, the Sprint football team likes to use the term out-of-season
since cadets are never truly of. The combination of 20 credit-hour academic loads per semester, mandatory physical itness participation,
and rigorous military training keep the cadets at
USMA continuously moving with little time to
spare. Footballs out-of-season training regimen
is tailor-made for the cadet athlete who needs to
enhance his athletic performance in the most effective and eicient means possible while trying
to balance the demands of cadet life.
The out-of-season training consists of weight
lifting, speed/agility/quickness workouts, and
team building activities in which the rising seniors on the team are given the opportunity to
develop their leadership skills. Since the weight
10
limit for the Collegiate Sprint Football League

(CSFL) is set at 172 pounds, the out-of-season
program must be tailored to ensure our cadetathletes are not adding much weight.
The cadet-athletes are put through a very
rigorous weight lifting program that is geared
to improve power and explosiveness. There are
two mandatory lifts per week and an optional lift
on the weekend. Common exercises include the
bench press, squat, trap-bar dead lift, and hang
clean. Lift sessions include a variety of other exercises such as plyo-metrics and stretch band
work. The cadet-athletes also use various abdominal exercises to increase core strength. The
lift sessions are typically 30 minutes in duration
which may seem short by some standards but
they are extremely intense. The cadet-athletes
are expected to add the work ethic, desire, determination, and intense labor to derive the beneits from the workout on any given day.
Sprint cadet-athletes also perform speed, agility and quickness workouts two days per week
during the out-of-season months. To improve
speed, cadet-athletes irst revisit the fundamentals and mechanics of running. Leg swings, wall
runs, single/double leg pops, and bounding
drills are just a few of the exercises the cadetathletes use to improve their form. They gradually build on what they have learned until they
are conducting full-ledged sprint workouts.
To improve agility, the cadet-athletes use a
wide variety of drills to strengthen as many muscle groups and involve as many neuromuscular
patterns as possible. Combine drills such as the
pro-agility shuffle (Diagram 1), 3-cone (L) drill
(Diagram 2), and the 4-square drill (Diagram 3)
along with the use of bags, lines, and cones to create diferent patterns contribute to overall agility
improvement. The cadet-athletes eventually graduate to skill pattern running that helps them per-
form the physical demands of their respective

positions. Skill pattern running simply attempts
to duplicate the position-speciic activity each
player performs in competition.
Pro Agility Shuttle

Diagram 1
Position three cones in a straight line ive
yards apart. Start at the center cone in a threepoint stance, straddling the start/inish line. Timing starts on your irst movement. Sprint ive
yards to the right. Stop and touch the line with
your right hand at the cone. Sprint 10 yards to
the far cone. Stop and touch the line with your
left hand at the cone. Then sprint ive yards
through the inish line.
3-Cone L Drill
Diagram 2
Diagram 1: Pro Agility Drill
Three cones are placed to form an L. Cones

are all ive yards apart. The player starts at cone 1
in a three-point stance. On Go, he runs to cone
2, bends down and touches the cone. Then he
turns back to cone 2 and goes around it on his
way to cone 3. He then goes around cone 3 and
heads back to cone 2, going around it. He inishes by sprinting back to cone 1.
Four Cone Drill

Diagram 3
Set up four cones in a square pattern. Each cone
should be 10 yards apart. The player starts by
sprinting from the irst cone to the second. He then
changes to a sideways shuffle from cone #2 to cone
#3. At cone #3, he sprints backward to cone #4. The
player then sprints forward back to cone #1. Timing
this drill will help improve quickness.
Diagram 2: 3-Cone L Drill
Sprint football at West Point places a premium

on strength, speed, agility, and quickness. Our
situation may be unique given the number of
other demands placed on cadet-athletes. Having
said this, it is very important that during the ninemonth layof between Sprint seasons, our cadetathletes continue to improve their strength levels,
speed, agility, quickness, and leadership skills in
the most efective and eicient manner. V
About the Authors: Lieutenant Colonel Mark
West, a 1991 graduate of the United States Military
Academy, is the head coach of Armys Sprint football team. A quarterback and captain of Armys
Lightweight Team, West led the Black Knights to
three league championships. He recently began his
22nd year as an Armor officer.
Paul Markowski recently completed his second season as Running Backs Coach for the Army Sprint
team. He previously coached at Mansield College
and Simon Frasier University. Markowski recently
completed a series of DVDs that is available at
www.AFMvideos.com.
Diagram 3: Four Cone Drill
11
REPORT
STRENGTH
WYOMINGS
WINTER PLAYER
DEVELOPMENT
PROGRAM
By Trent Greener
Strength and Conditioning Coach, University of Wyoming
uch like a football game has four quarters,
the Wyoming football player development program is broken down into four
distinct phases. Winter training, spring football,
summer training and the competitive season
make up our yearly training calendar. The Wyoming player development program has a structured plan during each of these phases and is
built around landmarks found in the studentathletes academic calendar and competition
dates. Each phase has very speciic goals and
intended outcomes.
Outside of playing the actual games, our winter program is the most important phase for a few
reasons. The winter phase marks the beginning of
a new team working toward a new season. January is the irst time our new team begins to train
and practice together. The winter program is also
the irst opportunity for new players, returning
players, the strength and conditioning staf and
the football coaching staf to begin working together and forging the identity of this new team.
The strength and conditioning staf begins
to design the next winter plan immediately after
the current winter program inishes. We evaluate

every aspect of the recently completed winter
program. Part of our evaluation lies in our success
meeting established team physical testing goals.
These include individual, position and team testing results and averages. As a program, we have
established team testing standards. We want to
see a minimum of 85% of our team set a personal
record or reach our lofty position standards in all
of our strength and performance tests.
Personal records and position standards can
be set any time during the winter program. However, we do set up our inal week as our Game
Day in the weightroom. This is our oicial testing
week. When all of the testing data is collected,
our football coaches have a physical state of the
union for this new team and each of their players. If we dont meet our previously mentioned
goals, we self-scout and evaluate our training
program. We highlight areas where we must
research and change for the following year. Our
student- athletes work too hard for us not to give
them the very best plan we can design.
Our 1-rep-max strength tests evaluate the
Chart 1: Wyoming Winter Program Design Format Over 7 weeks

12
entire body and include the power clean, back

squat and bench press. We also test a 225-pound
bench press for maximum reps. We do not allow wraps, straps or compression gear. Skill and
movement tests measure linear speed, change
of direction and lower body power. These tests
include the I drill, 3-cone drill, broad jump, vertical jump and electronically timed 20-and 40-yard
sprints. Body composition is also evaluated. Our
conditioning test is not administered during the
winter program.
Along with the physical testing and program
evaluations, the winter plan is designed to meet
very speciic goals. Some goals are in place every
year and never change. As a strength and conditioning staf, we must always improve our teams
overall performance. As older players graduate
and younger players arrive, we must continue
developing overall team strength, speed, explosiveness and athleticism. Other goals are determined yearly by Head Coach Dave Christensen
due to the changing nature of the locker room.
We may need to create more leadership opportunities for players. We may also have to create
situations for younger teams to showcase how

truly selless and enthusiastic they can be during
extremely diicult workouts.
Based on our evaluations and team goals, we
are able to design our winter plan. The 8 hours of
allowable weekly work occurs in two areas over
ive days. We have three days of training in the
weight room and two days of speed, agility and
movement training on the turf. We use a Monday, Wednesday and Friday lifting format. Each
day incorporates a total body approach and has
a movement priority and emphasis. We train all of
our linemen, linebackers and tight ends together.
The remaining ofensive and defensive skill positions train in another session (See Chart 1).
Within each session, there are three training
programs. A new player program is used with
about 15% of the team; a developmental program is used with about 75% of the team; an elite
program is used with about 10% of the team. Injured student-athletes do all of their mainstream,
unmodiied training with the strength and conditioning staf. After that portion is completed,
injured student-athletes are picked up by the
Wyoming sports medicine team and inish with
any modiied training and rehabilitation work.
Our new player program is for all new midyear athletes, no matter if they are from a high
school, junior college or are a inal year transfer. Everyone learns the Wyoming strength and
conditioning culture and how we do things. Like
most university settings, the technique, tempo,
intensity and coaching expectations overwhelm
every new Cowboy. Another very important factor for student-athletes coming to the Wyoming
campus is the 7,220-foot elevation issue. Head
Athletic Trainer Bob Waller helps every new Cowboy gradually acclimatize to our altitude.
The new player program is highlighted by lots
of technique work, lighter loads, no percentages
and a lower but gradually increasing overall volume of work and running. Assistant Coach Michael Ray trains these athletes. After four to six
weeks, Coach Ray and I will make the decision
about which athletes will move up to our developmental program.
Our developmental training plan is for everyone that has been with us from the start of
fall camp and has not progressed into the elite
group. We must continue to get this group bigger, faster and stronger. We also continue to
push this group mentally and coach them to be
great starters, inishers and overall competitors.
Coaches John McGee and Mike Muller spend
the most time with this group getting our goals
met. It must be noted that there are several players each semester that qualify physically for the
elite program but do not meet the mental component. They usually are not yet fully trusted by
the strength and conditioning staf to handle the
elite program and are denied admission.
Our Cowboy elite training plan is now heading into its fourth successful session. The strength
and conditioning staf approves each studentathlete into the elite program. Elite athletes must
meet the physical requirements in our strength
and performance testing standards as well as the

psychological standards of our expectations. They
must have great character and not be characters.
Our elite student-athletes exhibit high strength
and performance measurables for their positions
and have no real need for hypertrophy work. We
believe our elite student-athletes burn a bit brighter and hotter during training because of their
strength, speed and power. This program uses a
lower volume, velocity based strength training
program. The training protocol is grounded in the
research and writings of Dr. Bryan Mann.
This approach ensures our high-level athletes
dont burn their candles at both ends and end up
on the injury report. They train extremely hard
and are constantly monitored by the very nature
of their program. Associate Head Coach Mike
Cotterman charts all of their daily, weekly and
monthly velocities. Coach Cotterman makes daily
set, rep and velocity adjustments as needed.
We utilize Tuesday and Thursday as team
training sessions called our Winning Edge Program. The team completes a total of 10 12 Winning Edge sessions over a six-week period. Our
Winning Edge Program is a three-station format
that promotes and emphasizes attention to detail, accountability, competition, toughness and
teamwork. After a ten-minute dynamic warmup, the team breaks up into three groups based
on positions and similar athletic abilities. The
three groups begin at diferent stations each
session. This forces everyone out of their comfort zone and presents a continually changing
set of challenges each workout. As each group
inishes the work time allotted for each station,
they sprint to the next station and continue to
do so until the session is completed. At the end
of the Tuesday session, we will do team sprints
using our summer work and rest times. It serves
as a great team-inishing activity.
The three stations are: Mat Drills which are
run by football coaches; agilities which are run
by both the football coaches and the strength
and conditioning staf; and Speed Development
Drills that are run by the strength and conditioning staf. The speed development and agility stations change drills every third session. This allows
our student-athletes to learn the drills during the
irst session and master them by the second. We
change and progress the drills by adding more
complexity and randomness. We also increase
the work time for each station until settling on a
top work time. Our recovery and transition times
never change.
There are two inal points about our winter
program. I assign each of my staf a speciic position or side of the ball to coach and train for a
week. I rotate our staf weekly so every coach
works with every player many times during the
winter. I believe this facilitates relationship building. Every player gets to know each coachs style
and personality. Likewise, every coach gets to
know how each athlete works and responds to
their coaching and diferent situations.
Strength Report continued on page 49
13
SAFETY
FIRST
TIME TO RECONDITION
When your season ends, many pieces of equipment can simply be cleaned,
inventoried and stowed away until theyre needed next summer. Not so with helmets.
onsidering the pounding they likely have

taken during the season and their critical
importance from a safety standpoint, it is
imperative that every helmet be inspected and
either reconditioned or replaced if necessary. To
learn more about reconditioning and coaches
role in the process, AFM spoke to Ed Fisher, executive director of the National Athletic Equipment
Reconditioners Association (NAERA).
NAERA is made up of 21 companies that recondition and recertify approximately 1.7 million football helmets each year. Each company is
licensed by the National Operations Committee
on Standards for Athletic Equipment (NOCSAE)
to recondition and recertify helmets manufactured under the NOCSAE logo. Helmets that are
reconditioned and recertiied in a NAERA facility
are returned to the school or owner, meeting the
original helmet manufacturers speciications.
Reconditioning is the inspection, cleaning,
sanitizing, repair and restoration of athletic
equipment to the original performance standard. Recertiication is the reconditioning, testing and proper labeling of athletic equipment
that has previously met the NOCSAE standard
and recertiication standard.
According to Fisher, it is recommended by
NAERA and NOCSAE that each helmet be reconditioned and recertiied each year, or at a
minimum every other year. One football helmet
manufacturer requires their helmets be reconditioned and recertiied each year to maintain
the warranty, according to Fisher. Other helmet manufacturers recommend each year but
require at least every other year to maintain the
warranty on the helmet.
Here are Fishers responses to frequently asked
questions related to helmet reconditioning:
AFM: Why is it important for coaches and/or
equipment managers to inspect every helmet
after the season is over?
Fisher: The number one reason for checking the
helmet is player safety. The second reason is liability. A third reason is to determine the number
of new helmets needed to be purchased after
reconditioning/recertiication.
What should coaches or equipment managers

look for when inspecting helmets?
Coaches and equipment managers should be
looking and checking for proper it of the helmet
on the athlete during the season on a weekly basis. After the season, helmets should be sent to an
NAERA member for reconditioning and recertiication. A preliminary check by coaches and equipment managers should include but not limited to:
cracks in the helmet, any damage to the internal
parts, extensive gouging in the shell, proper hardware for facemask and chinstraps, exposed metal
on the facemask, and proper seals on valves.
Are reconditioned helmets as safe as new helmets?

Yes, all helmets that are reconditioned and recertiied in a NAERA facility meet manufacturers
and NOCSAE standards the same as new helmets.
What is the anticipated lifespan of a helmet?
Does reconditioning add to that expected lifespan?
Xenith X2 helmets are reconditioned at the

companys facility in Massachusetts.
The simple answer is yes, reconditioning can

maximize the life of the football helmet. A nonreconditioned/recertiied helmet involved in a
player injury can lead to personal and institution liability for the equipment manager/coach/
school administration as well as the school district. NAERA members will not recondition/recertify any helmet 10 years old or older.
How is it decided when a helmet should be replaced instead of being reconditioned?
What is the approximate cost of reconditioning

compared to a new helmet purchase?
The life of a football helmet varies greatly. Helmets of players that are in high contact positions,
like linebackers and ofensive and defensive linemen, may be diferent than players that are not involved in as much contact such as wide receivers,
quarterbacks, and kickers. A trained NAERA member representative should inspect all helmets.
What is involved in the reconditioning process?
The cost to recondition varies greatly. Some

parts cost upward of $60 for one part. But generally, a football helmet can be reconditioned for
$40 45 dollars for an adult helmet and $25 - $30
for a youth helmet. Painting of helmets during the
reconditioning process can cost extra. The cost
of a new youth helmet can be between $80 and
$130. The cost of a new adult helmet can be between $200 and $350. S
At the beginning of the reconditioning/recertiication process, a statistically relevant number of

helmets are identiied for the NOCSAE drop test
both pre- and post-reconditioning. All helmets
are sent through a process that includes removal
of the facemask and all external stickers/labels.
Ed Fisher has been the executive director of NAERA since 2005.

From 1997-2004 he was a high school administrator at North
Central High School in Spokane (WA). Fisher was previously
the head football coach at South Kitsap High School in Port
Orchard (WA) from 1974-1996. He also coached at Klamath
Union High School (OR) and was a graduate assistant at the
University of Hawaii.
35(6(17('%<
14
Helmets are disassembled and parts are washed,

cleaned, sanitized, dried and checked for any defects. The shell is bufed, washed and prepped for
painting. Helmets are reassembled to the manufacturers speciication and new hardware is put
on. All labels are replaced on the inside and outside of the helmet stating that the helmet meets
all manufacturers and NOCSAE standards.
:::;(1,7+&20
COACH
TO
COACH
By Bryon Hamilton
Associate Head Coach and Ofensive Coordinator
Shasta College
PREPARING YOUR
ATHLETES TO SUCCEED
AT THE 4-YEAR LEVEL
Its been said that its the Willies and the Joes not the Xs and Os that make college football
teams and programs great. There is no doubt that a surplus of talent usually translates to wins
on Saturday. Every 4-year college coach in the nation is trying to identify high school and junior
college athletes who can successfully transition into great college football players. Identifying talent, however, is only part of the equation that determines success. Every year there are
extremely talented young men who are released from their scholarships or simply walk away
due to issues unrelated to their athletic ability. I am sure we can relate to the athlete who has
unbelievable talent but lacks the self-discipline, motivation, academic preparation or other
necessary traits that will allow him to succeed at the college level. These failures are frustrating
and disappointing for all involved.
Academic success and obtaining a degree
should be of paramount importance to the
young men who take the ield every Saturday.
The NCAA tracks and publishes graduation rates
of each school and it is apparent that some universities are better than others when it comes to
identifying young men who have great football
talent and also can be successful students. The
truth is that many young men arrive on a college
campus unprepared for the rigors of being a student athlete.
Preparing our athletes solely to succeed on
the ield is simply not enough. We must prepare
them emotionally, academically, and physically
for what will be required of them at the next
level. We must also be honest in the recruiting
process about their strengths as well as their deiciencies. Not disclosing academic or behavioral
deiciencies can delay the proper support services that athletes may require to ensure success.
16
Every athlete who signs a scholarship to play

football envisions himself being successful on
the ield. But what about their vision of academic
success? What are their goals for acquiring a college degree? Sadly, the statistics are quite alarming. Although the NCAA is reportedly doing a
better job of graduating its athletes, the reality
is that many universities struggle to graduate
more than a half of those that are on scholarship
to play football.
According to statistics published at Fox Sports
via TheBootleg.com, from 2008-2011, universities
such as California and Arizona, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Georgia Tech, Florida State, and South
Florida graduated a little more than half of the
football players that were on scholarship. Is this
simply the normal by-product of the NCAA experience? Universities such as Boston College,
Stanford, Northwestern, Penn State, Notre Dame,
Wake Forest, TCU and Rutgers who collectively
graduate well over 70% of their athletes would

argue that its not. In fact, successful programs
like Stanford, Boston College and Northwestern
graduate almost all of their football players.
The obvious question is why are some coaches
and universities wildly successful in recruiting
athletes that succeed in both the academic and
athletic arenas. I would suggest that these universities are not only providing the proper academic
support but they are targeting athletes who already possess qualities that will translate to on
and of-ield success. Athletes who are properly
prepared in the myriad of areas required for athletic and academic success have a much better
chance at completing their four or ive-year commitment and earning a college degree. I am sure
there are many valid reasons for the wide range
of success in graduation rates. However, much of
the variance is due to the type of athlete and their
preparedness prior to arriving to the university.
As I write this article, the top ive BCS ranked
football teams are Alabama, Oregon, Florida
State, Ohio State and Stanford. The average graduation rate (2008-2011) of these football powers is over 70%. Is there a correlation between
academic success and success on Saturdays? The
statistics show that there is. Washington State
University Head Coach Mike Leach who maintained one of the nations top graduation rates
during his tenure at Texas Tech, said , Academics
is part of your identity. Its all about competing
at everything. Its all about everybody working at
a higher level in everything they attempt. When
competing is part of your nature, no matter if its

on the ield or in the classroom, it increases the
desire to succeed in both arenas. Competing becomes a habit.
In 2013, after 10 years of serving as a head
high school football coach, I took the position of
assistant head coach and recruiting coordinator
at the community college level. Our irst recruiting class included athletes from all over the United States. Months after recruiting these athletes
I am able to see irsthand how some arrived prepared for the rigors of college while others were
grossly unprepared. I have included ive areas of
preparation that I believe will help these young
men be successful:
Be Passionate
We need to encourage and train our young
men to be passionate about everything they do.
Players that have a passion for life and not just
for football are better prepared to succeed. Too
many times young men are allowed to be selectively passionate - passionate about the game,
but lacking a passion to prepare; passionate
about results but lacking passion for the process. We need to discourage the athlete who is
passionate about accolades and encourage the
athlete who is passionate about achievement. A
genuinely passionate person will be a tremendous player and tremendous teammate. He will
pursue excellence in all that he does and will
have a greater chance of succeeding at the fouryear level than the athlete who strictly focuses
on personal accolades and achievement.
resulted in a poor attitude and eventually led

to his quitting the team. Educating our athletes
about the patience that they may need to have
can help avoid the unrealistic expectations of
immediate success that some athletes may have.
Be Intelligent
A high football and academic acumen will go
a long way in helping athletes achieve success at
the collegiate level. Learned and developed skills
such as the ability to study properly, acquire and
decipher academic information in a timely manner, study game ilm and intelligently communicate with faculty and coaches will play a drastic
role in the success of the student athlete.
Many athletes have been presented with the
this is what you need to be eligible scenario
for most of their academic life. Their ceiling of
achievement is based on the minimum requirements to gain eligibility. Unfortunately, these
types of players are at a high risk of failing. Colleges are doing a much better job in providing
the academic support that many student athletes need and require, but an athlete that has
never been forced to attend study hall sessions
or study groups in high school or who is foreign
to the library may be too set in his ways to make
the necessary changes. Football intelligence
is also something that can be taught at the
high school and junior college level. The ability to read defenses, understanding blocking
schemes, breaking down opponents ilm and
evaluate a players own ilm are characteristics
that will allow a collegiate player to see the ield
sooner and have more success. We have a responsibility to prepare our athletes to be intelligent students as well as intelligent players.
Be Disciplined
Discipline in both your personal life and on
the athletic ield is one of the most important
elements of success. I agree with Ritu Ghatoureys statement Discipline is the foundation upon which all success is built. A lack of
discipline inevitably leads to failure. How many
times have we witnessed an athlete who possesses incredible talent only to waist it due to a
lack of personal discipline.
Discipline is something that can be taught
and learned early on in life. Coaches play a
prominent role in instilling discipline in their
players. All coaches agree that discipline is an
absolute necessity for the success of a football
team. I never understood the coach who is disappointed that a player is undisciplined on the
ield but allows the player to be undisciplined
in every other area of life. To me, its all related.
Coach to Coach continued on page 49
Be Realistic
This may seem like an unlikely element to success, but I think it is very important. Too many
times athletes falsely believe that success will be
immediate. The notion that once they have signed
a scholarship that much of the hard work has
been completed is a false assumption. Gifted high
school athletes who have compared themselves to
inferior athletes for years often arrive on campus
with an unrealistic picture of where they it into
the coaches and universities immediate plans.
In 2013, I recruited a gifted player from Florida. I was conident that with the right development and gradual understanding of the ofense,
he would have a great future in our program and
would be a great candidate for a scholarship at
the 4-year level.
This young man, however, felt he should immediately be a starter and he was convinced
that, based on his high school achievements, he
was being unfairly treated and evaluated. He was
unrealistic about the process and he lacked an
understanding of the development required for
success. A realistic approach wouldve promoted
hard work and a humility to achieve greatness
over a period of time. His unrealistic approach
17
AFM
SUBSCRIBERS
ASK
WITH
JOE DANIEL
PART II
DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR
AND OFFENSIVE LINE COACH
PRINCE GEORGE HIGH SCHOOL (VA)
oe Daniel has more than ten years experience coaching on the high school and college level. In 2009, Daniel began building a website which includes
more than 300 articles on defensive coaching www.Football-Defense.com
Daniel is also the host of The Football Coaching Podcast and has written several eBooks, including Coaching Footballs 4-2-5 Defense, Installing the 4-3
Over Defensive Front, and Dominating Football Defense with the Zone Blitz. A frequent contributor to both AFM and Gridiron Strategies, Daniel currently has a
blog on AmericanFootballMonthly.com, Linebacker Keys in the Miami 4-3 Defense. He answers your questions.
What is your best answer to 10 personnel with a
2 x 2 set in the middle of the ield? Matt Fulham,
Assistant Coach, Westhampton High School (NY).
Unless you are coaching in a scheme that is
purely cover 3, where you have spent plenty of
practice time working on four verticals, you need
to get into either a two-high safety coverage (cover 2 or quarters) or man coverage.
The best answer to defending 10 personnel is
to game plan. Is the opponent getting into spread
formations to throw the ball, or to run it? If they
are spreading you to run, we are going to play a 3
on 2 quarters concept to the wide side of the ield.
This is played similar to a soft cover 2. On the short
side, we will play a man coverage concept with the
safety and corner. That allows us to keep a 6-man
box with the Mike and Will.
If they are really only capable of running the
ball, we can play cover 0 and keep 7 defenders in
the box. When the team is spreading us to pass,
and we want to use zone coverage, we need to
get into the 3 on 2, quarters coverage concept on
both sides. Our Will linebacker will stay as tight to
the box as he can, while still being able to get to
his pass coverage responsibility; that is, wall the #2
receiver (See Diagram).
How do you deal with a double tight end formation and what do you run against it? Also, do you
have any proven motivational methods for your
defense pre-game? Ron Woitatewicz, Head Coach,
Dakota Ridge High School (CO).
In our over front, we make a Heavy check
against two tight end formations. The heavy check
moves our nose, normally in a weak shade on the
center, out to a 2i technique, inside shade of the

guard. It also moves our weakside defensive end
from his normal 5 technique out to a 7 technique,
the inside shade of the tight end. This adjustment
makes them harder to down block. No one else
needs to change. The Will linebacker always makes
the heavy check, any time he sees a tight end on his
side. If we are going to get a steady diet of two tight
end formations, we will run more under fronts than
over fronts to help stop the run.
I am not a big proponent of motivational
speeches or other tricks to get the defense hyped
up. We come to work four days a week in practice.
The game should not require any special motivation. The game itself is the motivation. Games are
a lot more fun than practice. That being said, I am
much more emotional on game days. I have never
been a rah rah guy, but Im sure it is clear to my
players that Im more amped up for games. Our
whole staf is. That translates to your players.
When defending the spread option, what is the
irst thing you think about? Most spread option
teams we face put the best athlete on the team
at quarterback and let him run the show. What
is your game plan to stop this? Also, how do you
defend the triple option without a seal block?
Jef Schaum, Head Coach, Warner University.
Defending option football is the same, no matter what type of option it is. Option responsibilities should be built into your base defense. A and
B gap defenders handle the dive, C gap defenders
handle the quarterback, and the force player is responsible for the pitch.
From that point, we start game planning to get
the ball in the hands of the player we want carrying
it. We want the ball moving sideways, not downhill,
so we start by inluencing the quarterback to keep
the football, and then to pitch. If the quarterback
is exceptional, we will use a tag to have the defensive end squat, instead of bending down the line of
scrimmage and attacking the dive.
The best advice I ever received on defending
the zone read came from Jim Reid when he was the
defensive coordinator at the University of Virginia.
When you game plan for the zone read, always go
in with three ways to defend it. You have your base

plan, and then two adjustments to confuse the QBs
reads and timing. We can use fronts, stunts and
blitzes to create those looks for the ofense.
Start working option responsibilities early and
often in your defensive practices. Even if you do
not see option very often, you are reinforcing the
assignments of your base defense.
What are the linebacker reads and defensive line
movements in the over 4-3 defense? Bob Knox,
Head Coach, Stephen Decatur High School (MD).
We have played with linebacker reads over the
years and found that for most linebackers, keying
the backield gets them going faster. It will make
your defense more vulnerable to misdirection
plays, so linebackers must learn to recognize certain ofensive line keys as well.
We key the near back in the backield as the
primary key. In an I-formation, the Mike linebacker
keys the fullback and the outside linebackers key
the tailback. The only exception is shotgun split
backields, which we cross-key. Our irst two steps
will always match the primary key. They continue
on their path to it the play unless they get a pull
or high hat from their secondary key, the ofensive
guard. We always follow pullers and stress that
guards dont lie. A high hat from the guard indicates
a pass play, and we will then get into our pass drops.
The defensive linemen are almost always playing in an outside shade, regardless of position. This
makes them interchangeable between the ends
and tackles on either side. We focus on the Strike
Point. The inside hand strikes the outside number
and the outside hand strikes the shoulder, framing
the armpit.
If the strike point comes at us, we try to beat the
block and control our gap. If the strike point goes
away, we bend down the line of scrimmage and
look to attack pullers and kick outs. Reaction to
block away is always to treat it as if the play is a run
play away from them. They then bend and sprint
down the line of scrimmage. While this is simplistic,
it is the basis of our entire defensive line play. We
teach that there are really only three types of blocks
to defeat: block to, block away, and pass block. S
19
GET STRONG
No matter what size
your school is or how
great your facilities
are, you can have
an exceptional
off-season
S & C program.
By AFM Editorial Staf
20
Clint Jenkins
ts hard to believe, but not that long ago

football coaches would pack up all the equipment after the season ended, say goodbye to
their players and not see them again until summer practice. They might encourage players to
participate in other sports as a way to keep it,
but thats about as far as it went.
Not any more. Today, coaches consider their
of-season strength and conditioning programs
to be the cornerstones of their success for their
next season. And with equipment advances in
recent years and better educated coaches, high
school and college programs are more sophisticated than ever.
Its not just about making your players stronger. Not to be overlooked are the powerful motivational and team-building elements that can
come out of the weight room. As University of
Wyoming Director of Strength & Conditioning
Trent Greener points out, winter strength and
conditioning is the irst time that next years
players will be together as a team. What better
opportunity to identify and establish your teams
future leaders?
While there are many colleges and even high
schools that have state-of-the-art equipment
and facilities for strength and conditioning, not
all schools are as fortunate. Whatever your team
size or budget, its important for you to have a
program that its your present situation. Here, in
their own words, four strength and conditioning
coaches from both large and small schools share
their of-season programs with descriptions of
their facilities, their weekly training schedules
and their motivational programs. Regardless of
your size or your facility, you can pick up valuable
tips from each one.
BISHOP GORMAN HIGH SCHOOL

Las Vegas, Nevada
Head Coach Tony Sanchez

Enrollment 1,200 students
9-12 Football Program 160-180 athletes
Four consecutive Nevada 4A Championships,
Nationally-Ranked Program
Sean Manuel serves as Head Strength and Conditioning Coach and also coaches the ofensive
line at Bishop Gorman. When he joined the Gorman staf in 2010, he completely revamped the
outdated strength and conditioning facility.
The Facility
Our weightroom facilities include a 4-lane,
60-yard track, 22 work stations (11 half racks,
11 full racks that include four pneumatic air-run
power racks). The racks are connected by cross
suspension pieces that provide us the ability to
do cross suspension work outside the racks. Each
work station (rack) has a single leg squat pad,
TRX band, dip attachment, a pair of 22 lb. chains,
two pairs of bar rack cups, two pull up stations, a
land mind piece with a jammer attachment, built
in Olympic bumper plate rack and band attachment pegs built into the rack frames for band
training with three pairs of diferent size bands.
We have 10 sleds, 10 50lb. kettle bells, 10
120lb. dumbbells with a dumbbell area that includes seven benches. We have three leg drives,
48 foam rollers, 40+ jump ropes, 40 weight vests,
28 bosu balls, 35 phisio balls, 24 medicine balls,
six glut-ham machines, two multi-pillar cable
stations, two leg press, two leg curls and 4 treadmills that reach 25 grade and 18 mph.
Off-Season Philosophy and Strategy
Our philosophy focuses on building an environment and program design that aids our athletes in
becoming the strongest and most athletic version
of them possible. We implement the What you
got expectation whatever you got on any given
day when you come in to train, we expect 100% of
it. Our expectation isnt that the kids just do something. The expectation is that the kids learn to build
the character and work ethic necessary to do what
it takes to get the job done.
21
something that is facilitated by our program. Our

whole focus at this point is to see how technically
functional, stable and big we can get the kids.
We also do body weight training with the junior high players coming in to be freshman. Once
we have worked to really stabilize their kinetic
chain and build proper technique, we start to load
them with body bars that range from 9-32lbs.
They do baseline movement patterns (proper
speed mechanics and jump landing mechanics)
and technical lifting patterns on basic lifts for the
Bishop Gormans Sean Manuel

Once we have gone through these initial phases to create proper alignment and technique,
develop more functional movement patterns,
suiciently increase joint stability and adequately
restore muscle length tension relationships in
compensatory areas we go into a pretty extensive hypertrophy phase for about four to eight
weeks depending on the needs of the group. If
we have a very muscularly developed group, we
do about four weeks in hypertrophy. If we have
a less muscularly developed group that needs
to put on considerable size and weight, we do
eight weeks of hypertrophy.
Clean, Squat and Bench in a slow, controlled fashion for the majority of their freshman year.
The JV does an extended version of the varsitys anatomical adaptation and strength stability phase. They usually stay in this baseline
phase for two months. We do this for both their
strength development and speed development.
We also make technique and proper movement
patterns the primary focus for them from January-March. Then we begin to load them after this
point gradually until the summer.
Clint Jenkins
Our basic approach to our winter program its

within our 52-week periodized program design.
It includes assessment - being able to clearly
identify the biggest strengths and weaknesses
of the athlete or team - development and implementation of a systematic plan to address those
needs by carrying out a program that increases
athletic performance over a given period of time.
Also, injury prevention through proper lifting
techniques and corrective exercise training.
We generally begin the winter program the
irst week of January. The primary focus of our
initial time together, about the irst month, is
assessment, anatomical adaptation, corrective
exercise training and strength stabilization work.
Chart 1: Bishop Gorman annual winter program design overview
Program Specifics
Here is an overview of part of our annual
program design for January-April (Charts 1-5).
We do not usually go into any position-speciic
work with the team until the end of March. The
QBs and WRs start throwing the ball on their own
in February and the DBs usually go and shadow
them, but they do this on their own and it is not
22
Chart 2: A weekly overview for corrective exercise and general anatomical adaptation
Motivation Program
Chart 3: A week overview for strength and stabilization training
Our incentive for the kids is a shirt program.

Every kid starts out wearing a white shirt. Once
he reaches a certain max on his lifts, he is allowed
to wear a diferent color shirt. The diferent color
shirts signify a certain lifting accomplishment
and status in the weight room.
In order to wear a blue shirt an athlete must
bench 225, squat 300 and clean 200. In order to
wear an orange or black shirt, an athlete must
bench 275, squat 350 and clean 225. In order for
an athlete to receive the highest awarded shirt
(an Iron Man shirt) which is a specialty shirt that
is navy blue with a picture of a lifter on it and the
words Iron Man printed on it, an athlete has to
bench 300, squat 400 and clean 275. The shirt
they wear in the weight room is a source of pride
and a symbol of the athletes hard work and dedication to getting better.
Piedmont High School

Monroe, North Carolina
Chart 4: A week overview for hypertrophy training
Head Coach Ron Massey

Enrollment 1,100 students
9-12 Football Program 75-80 athletes
The Panthers play as a member of the 3A Southern
Carolina Conference. They have won seven games
(7-4) heading into the post-season.
Mark Hoover is the Piedmont Strength and Conditioning Coach. He also teaches Social Studies.
This is his second year at the school.
The Facility
Chart 5: A week overview for end of hypertrophy and the incorporation of position specific
work on Wednesdays
We have a ield house that is separate from

the high school. We have nine power racks and
two Olympic bars at each rack. We have bumper
plates, metal plates, and a bench for each station.
We also have two reverse hyper machines, two
glute ham machines, two pull down machines
and two complete sets of dumbbells up to 100
pounds. We have a tools closet with stretch
bands, chains, slam balls, medicine ball, kettlebells, foam rollers, jump ropes, sledge hammers
and battle ropes. We also have plyometric boxes.
Behind the weight room is a large grassy area.
We have a 30 x 8 sandpit, big tires, various sleds
and speed agility equipment. Most everything
we have was purchased through fundraising or
our by our football booster club.
23

At Piedmont High School, a strong, well-rounded and proactive strength and conditioning program is the key to developing a strong football
program. We work tirelessly to sell that philosophy to our student-athletes and their parents.
We believe that the strength and conditioning
program is where you develop team chemistry
and where team rules, standards and expectations are put into place.
for this. We feel the BFS program is a great way to

introduce the players to progressive overload. We
will run this program through the middle of May.
Program Specifics
Three days each week are lifting days with
the other two being our speed/agility/ and conditioning days. We start of with testing. We will
test the full squat, lat bench, clean, vertical jump
and pro agility. We use a formula based on those
forces them to think on the run while they are also

tired, simulating a late-game situation. We believe
this has translated into our teams improved ability to perform late in games last season.
Friday is our linear speed, plyometric and intensity training day. We will do our sprinting, our
plyometrics and challenge the players with stations of various drills and movements. We use tire
lips, sledge hammer swings, battle ropes, sleds,
etc. for these stations. Each station is timed and
we make it as competitive as possible. We want
this day to be a physical and mental challenge.
Here is an example of a week with our three
lifting days (Chart 6).
Motivation
Chart 6: Piedmont High Schools Three Lifting Days

The Panther motto is technique before numbers. We strive to be as technically sound as possible and refuse to allow the players to sacriice
this for sake of bigger weights. The initial phase
of our of-season program begins after the end
of our season, or in early December if weve participated in the playofs. This initial phase is really not a phase, but active rest. Being a smaller
school, a good percentage of our athletes participate in winter sports. Others are encouraged
to be active but our organized strength and conditioning activities are suspended.
We kick our program into full swing once
our Spring semester begins in mid-January. We
are blessed to have strength and conditioning
as an academic credit course during the school
day. We have four 90-minute periods during the
school day. The vast majority of our studentathletes will be enrolled in the course. The small
number of athletes we do not see during the
school day will train in the mornings before
school three days a week.
We begin to work with our rising freshmen in
early February two days a week after school. Monday we squat, clean and jerk. Wednesday we front
squat, snatch and bench. We use the basic principles behind the Bigger, Faster, Stronger program
24
maxes to project every other exercise we will do.

We use a density training philosophy for our
volume and intensity ranges.
Mondays we will clean, back squat, jerk and
snatch along with some lower posterior work.
Tuesday we will dead lift, bench, incline and do
some sort of barbell rows and pulls. Our goal is to
do our pulls and our pushes at a 2:1 ratio, meaning
we do double the volume of pulls as we do pushes.
Thursday is our third day and we will hit snatches,
front squats, good mornings and overhead squats.
Wednesday is our agility and change-of-direction day. We do an extensive ladder routine
with steady state, linear and elastic response
agility. Our change-of-direction drills focus on
both open and closed drills using cones. One
key addition we have made recently is a mental
training aspect to our cone drills. The inal set of
drills, once our players are taxed physically, is to
challenge them with a physical drill that takes
thinking on the run to complete.
We place a series of colored cones out for the
drill. Each group is given a series of colors that
correspond with the cones. For example, I will say
red, blue, orange, red, purple and then blow the
whistle. The players must touch the cones in the
order I called out while on the run. I believe this
Our motivation program is a points system

where each player can achieve levels based on
performance and other factors. This is a three
tier club program based on total points accumulated during the winter/spring program. Our
top scorers fall into the Barbarian category. This
is hard to achieve and these athletes must score
high in each category to qualify. Most of these
players will be rising seniors.
The second tier is Hard Rock and the inal is
Iron Panther. We have billboards in the weight
room with the qualiications for each group.
They also get a t-shirt when they reach the club
levels. This leads to a great level of competition
and causes the kids to really push themselves.
It also sets the tone for who our leaders will be.
In the past Ive also used a clean club in which
I set a minimum weight goal for each player to
reach for entrance into the club. The irst year
I set the goal at 185 pounds. By the end of the
school year we had all but a small handful reach
that level. The next year we raised the weight to
205 pounds and saw similar success.
Battle Ground Academy

Franklin, Tennessee
Head Coach Rahim Batten

Enrollment 320 students
9-12 Football Program 62 athletes
Battle Ground Academy has won seven state
championships, the last one in 2003.
Fred Eaves is the Strength and Conditioning
Coach at Battle Ground Academy. He is also defensive line coach and Wellness and Athletic Performance Coordinator for all BGA students and
athletic teams. Coach Eaves has trained 32 NFL
Draft picks as well as 10 NCAA All-Americans.
The Facility
We have a 6000 square foot weight room with
a 40 x 40 indoor turf area and 40-yard speed
track. We have ten platforms and ten half racks
with step-up boxes and training blocks at each
rack. We also have six glute-ham machines, two
jammers, and a variety of selectorized and cardio
equipment for rehabilitation and general wellness purposes. Our dumbbell area is also very
large with six benches and dumbbells from ive
to 100 pounds. We also have a large section of
medicine balls, foam rollers, and bands.
Our philosophy is multi-faceted. We want to
develop our athletes mentally as well as physically. We assess their strengths and weaknesses
and then create a comprehensive plan for each
athlete to reach his potential for the next season.
It takes the cooperation of our entire athletic
staf to accomplish this goal.
We are a small school and many of our football players are multi-sport athletes. Our wellness
and athletic performance program as well as the
cooperation of all of our sport coaches ensures
that our athletes continue to lift year-round. We
still lift heavy in our in-season program, and both
our players and sport coaches understand that
we must do this to make sure that our athletes
are progressing instead of just maintaining. It
was very important to get our coaches from other sports to understand this philosophy in order
for us to successfully develop our players.
Academically, BGA is very challenging, so
we also hold workouts before school and after
school for athletes who may have a hard time itting the class into their day due to the rigors of
their academic schedule. Study Hall is also a time
where students can complete a workout if their
grades merit an exemption from this period during the school day. We have many opportunities
for our players to get in the weight room, so we
do not accept excuses on participation in the ofseason program.
It is our plan each year that we are going to
play until the irst week of December. At BGA, we
then go into exams immediately after that week.
We cannot have organized workouts during our
exam period, so we are going to use that time
and our Christmas break as our active recovery/
rest period. We want our athletes to come back
both physically and mentally prepared to work
when we begin in January.
Program Specifics
When we return in January, we go on a tier
system. We do a three-day total body lift with two
days of speed and movement work. Our program
is broken down into four blocks ive counting
the wildcat block. Monday will be session T (total
body), Wednesday will be session U (upper body),
Battle Ground Academy

and Friday will be session L (lower body). We will
perform total, upper, and lower body exercises
on each of these days as well as a posterior chain
and posterior shoulder exercise. We use our block
system to progress our athletes through middle
school, freshman, junior varsity, and varsity play.
Block 1 (White) - Is where our athletes begin to
work with weight and perform some of the basic
exercises they are going to need to be successful
and healthy long-term in our program. We are
working on our Olympic lifts with great technique
and speed on the bar. Push-ups, pull-ups, inverted row, and dips will be an element at the end of
every workout at this developmental stage. Core
lifts for this group would be the trap bar deadlift,
overhead press, and overhead squat.
Block 2 (Gray) - This is usually where our athletes begin to do more advanced exercises, but
they still work very heavily on technique with
our Olympic movements. We are very strict
about the weight we let them use at this training stage. The core movements for this group are
clean deadlift, bench press, and front squat.
Block 3 (Gold) - We begin to progress heavily
into the Olympic movements with our athletes
in this stage. This is usually our junior and senior
athletes. We also introduce the back squat in this
block. The core movements for this block are power clean, front squat, bench, and back squat.
Block 4 (Blue) - Our very advanced and best
lifters will progress to the Blue Block. These athletes have tremendous technique, core strength,
relative body strength, and athletic ability. This
is a stage we might implement some more conjugate type periodization with the rotation of
exercises. The core exercises for this block are
the full clean, bench variations, back squat/front
squat rotation.
Wildcat Block - Is a speciic program for middle
school athletes and freshmen. This block is mainly
body weight, and works to establish a base of
relative body strength, balance, and body control
with our athletes. They will learn our Olympic pro-
gression and how to perform our basic exercises

correctly and safely. The speed program will also
be very basic and they will learn proper body position and proper arm action during this phase.
This is our January through March
overview of our program:
JANUARY - We begin our speed and movement
work in January.
Week One 3-day total body lift (load), 2-day base
lineal series speed work.
Week Two 3-day total body lift (load), 2-day base
Week Three 3-day total body lift (load), 2-day
base lineal series speed work.
Week Four 3-day total body lift (unload), 2-day
base lineal series speed work.
FEBRUARY - We begin incorporating one strongman lift per day at the end of the workout. For
example, keg carry, tire lips, sledge hammer
slams, prowler sleds, battling ropes.
base lateral series speed work.
Week Four 3-day total body lift (unload), 2-day
base lateral series speed work.
MARCH - We continue with our strongman lift
per day plus we add lineal plyometrics such as
bounding during this phase on a speed day each
week.
lateral series speed work + plyos.
25

weave series speed work + plyos.
weave series speed work + plyos.
Randolph High School

Randolph, Minnesota
Week Four - Spring Break (unload) - Active rest we provide them with a light plan for that week. We
count this as our unloading week.
Motivation Program
We use various methods to motivate, but we
truly believe that our Pyramid of Success is the
foundation of all we do (Chart 7). We give players
other types of awards to build conidence as well
as to keep the attention of our athletes throughout the school year. We give awards that honor
our best lifters in our in-season, of-season, and
summer programs. We have a standards board
for each grade level that has milestones we want
each player to achieve in certain lifts depending
upon which block of training they are in. We attach
T-shirts to these milestones, and these shirts are
very popular with our kids. You can only earn these
shirts through our program, and they are not sold
at the school store unlike most of our other gear.
Our pound-for-pound record board is also a
great motivator for our athletes. I truly believe in
pound-for-pound recognition at the high school
level due to the diferent developmental ages
and sizes we deal with at this level. It gives a variety of kids a chance to work hard and be recognized for committing to our program.
Lastly, relationship building is the most important way in which we connect with and motivate
our players. We love our players, and we spend a
tremendous amount of time getting to know our
players and investing in their lives. They know they
can come to us with any issue, and we are going
to be supportive and work to help them through
whatever challenge they may be going through
whether it be school, family, or peer-related. Kids
will run through a brick wall for you when they
know you love and care about them. Caring
and loving your players is something that
has to be genuine, and kids will know if
their coach is sincere or not. They will
see through coaches that do not
truly invest in their lives. Our philosophy is that everything has
to be centered on our players in order to be truly
successful at the high
school level.
Head Coach Chris Stanton

Enrollment 161
9-12 Football Program 36 Athletes
Randolph plays 9-man football. This year, they
won their irst playof game since 2003 and only
their second playof win since 1992.
Aaron Soule is the weight room coordinator at
Randolph High School. He also serves as ofensive coordinator and athletic director, and is a
middle school social studies teacher.
Program Specifics
The Facility
We recently built a new weight room that
came from a referendum. We have four platforms
for athletes to do Olympic lifting and we have
two multi-racks that have squat racks on each
side for a total of four squat/bench stations. We
also have a cable crossover that can do a variety
of exercises. Additionally, we have two treadmills,
two elipticals, and a range of dumbbells. I started
the weightlifting program one and a half years
ago and have been slowing getting rid of big stationary equipment like our leg press, pectoral machine, and other machines that were more often
used as seats than workout equipment. The majority of our workouts are done on the platforms,
in the racks, and in the hallway and gym.
At Randolph, we follow the Bigger, Faster,

Stronger philosophy and training schedule. Our
weekly of-season schedule mirrors our summer
eight-week strength and conditioning schedule.
Below is a chart for the irst week of January that
shows the lifts for the Monday, Wednesday, and
Friday sessions. This schedule then continues for
eight weeks (Chart 8).

My basic philosophy building a program for
our football players is to make the weight room
a place where the kids want to be. Once they
commit to the program I can make them work as
hard as I want them to. Im always trying to build
more explosive athletes and get the athletes
to squat deeper. I believe that a deeper
squat will help us become more lexible,
stronger, and ultimately faster. We have
many athletes that play two-three
sports due to the size of school.
As much as I want to create an
ultimate football player, it is
more important in our situation to build athletes
that can also succeed
Chart 7: Battle Ground Academys Pyramid of Success

26
on the basketball court, baseball ield, etc. I want

to have an answer for every kid that says he cant
lift because of basketball or baseball.
I dont create position-speciic workouts, but
I have two workouts for the athletes in-season
and out-of-season. I believe that incorporating
the junior high has been huge in the growth of
our weight room. Our varsity football team hasnt
had a winning record since 1993. I have been recruiting as many kids as I can to commit to the
weight room. Our older kids have been so set in
their ways that it is harder to get them to commit
so I decided to start recruiting the kids earlier. I
have the younger kids do the exact same workout our older kids do, but a lot less weight. I want
the kids on the platforms performing snatches
and clean-and-jerks.
Chart 8: Randolphs Sample Week

Motivation Program
First, we reward the kids who show up. I also
write hand-written notes and mail them home to
the kids. In this day of technology, it is amazing
how a hand-written note still means something.
I have noticed the kids who received letters have
become more committed, are better leaders and
are encouraging other kids to join. Finally, we
held a Lift-A-Thon in the spring. Kids went out
and received donations and I let them max out.
We used the money to purchase equipment in
the weight room. S
*(7<2852/,1(
,17+(=21(
Teaching the Square Drag, Square Drag and Skip, and the Brace
and Skip Technique in Zone Blocking Some Dos and Donts
By Dan Dieringer Ofensive Line Coach Lane College
wo key elements in proper zone blocking technique are keeping the

shoulders square and using lateral steps to close in on the defender.
In coaching the ofensive line at the collegiate level for the past 23
years, I have learned that we have to adapt our teaching methods and
techniques to our players. Rarely do we come across a player who has size,
strength, athleticism, and intelligence. We have to adjust our techniques
based upon the individual players physical and mental abilities, and the
ofensive scheme.
Like all coaches, I have compiled rules and techniques by borrowing
them from other coaches. I have spent years experimenting with diferent schemes and philosophies, attending clinics, visiting practices, and
observing other ofensive line coaches teach their drills and schemes.
The three types of zone runs we teach at Lane College are:
1. Inside Zone: An A-gap play. Sprint spot the inside hip of the playside
guard. This is usually with straight dive action.
2. Mid Zone: A B-gap play. Sprint spot the inside hip of the playside tackle.
This is a press to cutback play.
3. Outside Zone: C-gap to bounce play. Sprint spot outside the EMOL.
7HFKQLTXHV8VHGWR7HDFKWKH6WUHWFKWR%DVH5XOHV
Square Drag / Square Drag and Skip / Brace and Skip Technique
(Bracer Skip)
NFL Coaches Jim McNally and Bill Callahan have implemented and lectured on these techniques. We have adjusted these techniques at Lane
College to it our players needs. The development of these techniques advanced our eiciency and development in running our zone running game.
Our inside zone still has lateral square drag and brace steps. We add a
second skip step on our inside zone if needed to cover up the defender. This
27
allows us to maintain balance while gaining ground and covering up loose

technique defenders or stunting defensive fronts.
We have eliminated the bucket step technique. Logically, we do not
want to use techniques that turn a linemans shoulders away from the defender and the LOS. The Brace and Skip technique is very simple. It adds a
simple brace and skip step to our zone footwork. Why add a skip? The skip
squares the shoulders and keeps the ofensive lineman in a linear relationship to the defender. The brace regains balance before contact. The skip
closes the distance to the defender to cover him up. Thus, it lets the lineman keep his entire body in a square position, allowing him to identify all
defenders in his zone and giving him an opportunity to it on the defender
both on the LOS and at the second level.
'5,//,1*7+(=21(6&+(0(7(&+1,48(6
Drill: 3 Man-Combination Square Drag and Skip (Diagram #2)

Objective: A) Rep footwork with adjacent lineman.
B) Teach timing of release to second level.
Equipment Needed: None
Coaching Points:
Alignment: Of the Ball
Covered: Square drag combo with adjacent OL.
Uncovered: Square drag to close the distance with adjacent OL
to secure front side gap. Climb to second level.
The Square Drag Technique

Technique: Lateral steps until you close the distance to the defender.
This technique is used on the mid-zone play. We use lateral steps that
allow the ofensive linemen to stretch the defenders.
Drill: Square Drag: 2-Man Combination (Diagram #1)
Coaching Points:
Alignment: Of the ball.
Covered: Square drag combo with adjacent OL.
Uncovered: Square drag to close the distance with adjacent OL to secure
frontside gap. Climb to second level.
Technique: Lateral steps until you close the distance to the defender
Covered Lineman
DO: Keep shoulders square. Eyes locked onto area and defender(s) in
target zone. Stretch the defender until you have to base block him. Fit
and drive. Finish the block.
DONT: Turn shoulders. Make sure to step and stretch the defender until
you have to base block.
Uncovered Lineman
DO: Keep shoulders square. Lateral steps until space between adjacent defender is closed. Eyes locked onto area and potential targets. Be
prepared to pick up any stunts or blitzes. Climb to second level when
combination has secured the irst level.
DONT: Turn shoulders. Leave for the second level when the irst level is
secured.
Covered Lineman
DO: Keep shoulders square. Eyes locked onto area and defender(s) in
target zone. Stretch the defender until you have to base block him. Fit and
drive. Finish the block.
Uncovered Lineman
DO: Keep shoulders square. Lateral steps until space between adjacent defender is closed. Eyes locked onto area and potential targets. Be
prepared to pick up any stunts or blitzes. Climb to second level when
combination has secured the irst level.
Diagram 2: 3-Man Combination Square Drag and Skip
secured.
Objective: 1) Individually teach the initial square drag and brace step.
2) Teach the base block with square shoulders after steps.
Drill: Square Drag: 1-on-1 Square Drag and Brace (Diagram #3)

Coaching Points:
1. Lateral square drag steps.
2. Brace of the inside leg.
3. Fit (double under) and inish (leg drive).
4. Keep shoulders square.
Diagram 1: 2-Man Combination Square Drag
28
Covered Lineman
DO: Align of the ball. Lateral square drag steps to stretch the defender.
Brace before contact to maintain balance. Fit (double under) and inish (leg
drive). Keep shoulders square.
DONT: Align close to the defender and turn your shoulders.
Uncovered Lineman
DO: Square drag until square with the second level defender. Keep eyes up
onto the second level defender. Climb and it on the defender.
DONT: Climb too fast to the second level. Secure irst level.
Diagram 4: 1-On-1 Square Drag Skip
The Brace and Skip Technique

Drill: 2-Man Combination Bracer Skip (Diagram #5)
Diagram 3: 1-On-1 Square Drag Brace
Coaching Points:
Alignment: Of the Ball.
Drill: 1-on-1 Square Drag Skip (Diagram #4)

Covered: Brace and skip combo with adjacent OL.
Objective: 1) To individually teach the initial square drag / brace and skip
step.
2) To teach the base block with square shoulders after the steps.
Uncovered: Brace and skip to close the distance with adjacent OL to secure frontside gap. Climb to second level.
Technique: Brace and skip until you close the distance to the defender.
Coaching Points:
Covered Lineman
1. Lateral square drag steps.

2. Brace of the inside leg.
3. Skip to cover the defender.
4. Fit (double under) and inish (leg drive)
5. Keep shoulders square.
DO: Keep shoulders square. Eyes locked onto area and defender(s) in target zone. Stretch the defender until you have to base block him. Fit and
Covered Lineman
DO: Align of the ball. Lateral square drag steps to stretch the defender.
Brace before contact to maintain balance. Fit (double under) and inish (leg
drive). Keep shoulders square.
Uncovered Lineman
DO: Square drag until square with the second level defender. Keep eyes up
on the second level defender. Climb and it on the defender.
Diagram 5: 2-Man Combination Bracer Skip
29
Uncovered Lineman
DO: Keep shoulders square. Brace and skip steps will close the space between adjacent defender. Eyes locked onto area and potential targets. Be
prepared to pick up any stunts or blitzes. Climb to second level when combination has secured the irst level.
secured.
Drill: 3-Man Combination Bracer Skip Drill (Diagram #6)
Coaching Points:
Drill: One-on-One Brace and Skip Drill (Diagram #7)
1. Alignment: Of the ball.
2. Covered: Brace and skip combo with adjacent OL.
3. Uncovered: Brace and skip to close the distance with adjacent OL to
secure frontside gap. Climb to second level.
Technique: Brace and skip until you close the distance to the defender.
Covered Lineman
DO: Keep shoulders square. Eyes locked onto area and defender(s) in target zone. Stretch the defender until you have to base block him. Fit and
Objective: 1) Individually teach the initial brace and skip steps.

2) Teach the base block with square shoulders.
Coaching Points:
1. Open and brace step.
2. Skip of the inside leg.
3. Fit (double under) and inish (leg drive).
4. Keep your shoulders square.
Covered Lineman
DO: Align of the ball. Brace and skip to stretch the defender. Brace before
contact to maintain balance. Skip to cover up the defender. Fit (double under) and inish (leg drive). Keep shoulders square.
Uncovered Lineman
DO: Keep shoulders square. Brace and skip steps will close the space between adjacent defender. Eyes locked onto area and potential targets. Be
prepared to pick up any stunts or blitzes. Climb to second level when combination has secured the irst level.
Uncovered Lineman
secured.
DO: Brace and skip to square with the second level defender and gain
ground on the defender. Keep eyes up onto the second level defender.
Climb and it on the defender.
Diagram 6: 3-Man Combination Bracer Skip Drill

Diagram 7: 1-On-1 Brace and Skip Drill
30
Drill: Brace and Skip vs. Sled (Diagram #8)

Objective: 1) To teach the coordination of the bracer skip steps for all
linemen to practice as a unit.
2) Conditioning drill.
Equipment Needed: 5 or 7-man blocking sled.
Coaching Points:
1. Brace and skip steps.
2. Brace of inside leg, skip of frontside leg.
3. Fit (double under) and inish (leg drive) for 10 yards. Call out your cadence during the drill.
4. Keep your shoulders square.
DO: Align of and one pad ofset the sled. Brace and skip to the sled pad. Fit
(double under) and inish (leg drive) for 10 yards. Keep shoulders square.
DONT: Align too close to the sled. S
Diagram 8: Brace and Skip vs. Sled Drill
About the Author: Dan Dieringer is in his second season as ofensive line
coach at Lane College. He has 23 years of coaching experience with the ofensive line and previously was both the ofensive coordinator and ofensive line
coach at the South Dakota School of Mines. A 1991 graduate of Paciic University (OR), Dieringer was a four-year letterman on the defensive line.
Coach Dieringer answers your questions on Facebook - just go

to http://www.facebook.com/AmericanFootballMonthly/
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LSUs Ofensive Line Drills, July, 2003
31
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To STOP THE ZONE READ, it is critical to present a number

of different coverages to the opposing quarterback
including a two-deep safety look.
By Rey Hernandez Retired High School and College Coach
he zone read spread ofense has had a

major impact on all levels of football in
recent years. Defensive coordinators have
had to make adjustments to their base defensive
calls in order to defend the basic running plays,
play assignment football against the option, and
defend the pass. Many years ago at a coaching
clinic I heard a coach say that he made it a point
to never get into a battle of wits with the opposing coach. This is probably the best advice I ever
received from a fellow coach. As a high school
defensive coordinator, I accepted the possibility
that the ofensive coordinator on the other side of
the ield had his ofense well prepared to execute
34
their game plan and that perhaps he was just as

smart, if not smarter, than I was. If I was going to
get into a thinking match with someone, it wasnt
going to be the opposing ofensive coordinator. I
chose instead to get into a battle of wits with the
teenager who was taking snaps from the center.
PLAYING COVER-2
WITH NINE DEFENDERS IN THE BOX
In order to confuse a quarterback, it is important to present him with a variety of coverages
and give him a two-deep safety look that he will
have to recognize. I was fortunate to get in on
the ground level when two-deep coverage started to surface on the high school level in the mid1970s. Cover-2 continued to be our base coverage for the rest of my career. One of the things
that I never did was to compromise the strength
of this coverage from a pass defense standpoint.
One of the biggest mistakes coaches make is
attempting to cheat the deep safeties up to get
them more involved in run support while at the
same time maintaining pass integrity at this position. For our defense, the two deep safeties were
secondary run support players and they were
never asked to assume any primary run support
role. The starting depth at the snap of the ball was
14 yards from the line of scrimmage. One of the

unorthodox things that we did was play inside
leveraged corners and not funnel corners like the
vast majority of two-deep teams do.
From this position, it is very diicult for wide receivers to stalk block the corners on run plays. We
played with nine players in the box. The corners
would read the triangle (near lineman, back and
quarterback) to get their run-pass read. A pass read
by the corner would essentially trigger match-up
zone coverage in the lats and the quick-set passing game triggered man-under coverage on slant
routes and fade routes at the corner position. The
corners always knew that even if they made an incorrect read, the two deep safeties would always
be there to pick up any deep threat.
PLAYING THE VERTICAL STRETCH AT THE
CORNER POSITION
One of the most common mistakes that rolled
corners make in zone under lat coverage comes
when the ofense applies a vertical stretch. When
executing this coverage, a corner must be taught
to press the intermediate route irst and force the
QB to dump the ball underneath and settle for the
least productive option. In true zone coverage, the
corners irst responsibility is to impede the vertical release by the wide receiver and then execute
a zone turn while at the same time getting depth
in order to squeeze the void created between him
and the deep safety. As he zone turns and gets
depth, the corner will read the quarterback and
let the underneath routes develop.
The corner must be reminded that the quarterback has a speciic amount of time to make a
decision and it is imperative that he not make the
decision for the quarterback. The quarterbacks
selection of a receiver in this vertical stretch scenario becomes much less complicated if the corners begin to settle too soon or if they start coming forward to defend the underneath route. He
should force the quarterback to exhaust his read
time. When the quarterback sees that the corner
is not biting on the short route, he will have to
reposition his feet and line of vision in order to
dump the ball of to the underneath route. It is
not until the corner gets this read that he will
come of the intermediate route and move to the
underneath receiver.
Playing the vertical stretch in this manner will
also identify quarterbacks who are greedy and unwilling to settle for the shorter completion. Pressing the intermediate route at the corner position
will also allow the safety to get good depth on the
hash, create good break angles and defend passes that are now being thrown deeper upield due
to the fact that the quarterback had to hold onto
the ball longer than he would have liked to.
In order to give your defense an opportunity
to execute efectively, you will have to cancel gaps,
play assignment football on option and, most
importantly, confuse the quarterback by playing
multiple coverages including cover 2. We played a
Diagram 1: BASIC WEAKSIDE REDUCTION GAP CONTROL 50 FRONT WITH COVER-2 COVERAGE
VERSUS A SET THAT HAS THREE BACKS IN THE BOX
3-4 front for the most part and in our selection of

personnel there were three positions in this defensive scheme that whenever possible we would try
to ill with players that had a speciic physical proile. These positions included the weakside outside
linebacker, the Flip linebacker and one safety.
At the weakside linebacker position, we tried
to ind a strong athletic player who could come
of the edge quickly and had good transitional
speed. Against a zone read team, he was a player
that a tackle would have a diicult time blocking one-on-one. In slide protection blocking, he
would also be able to physically punish a running back assigned to block him when he came
of the edge. The Flip linebacker was our weakside inside linebacker. He didnt have to be any
speciic size but he had to be smart and quick.
Throughout my years coaching, most of our best
Flips were around 59 or shorter. One of our safeties had to be a smart player who could recognize sets and make coverage calls based on the
pre-snap strength of the ofensive formation and
then make coverage checks based on motion.
Diagram 1 shows a basic weakside reduction
gap control 50 front with cover-2 coverage.
WHY A TILTED NOSE?
The nose plays in a tilted stance and we want
the ofense to double team him. The center is the
only lineman that our defensive linemen can get
their hands on quickly. The other linemen will be
too far of the ball to lockout quickly. The tilted
nose does not provide the ofensive linemen
with the preferred body surface landmarks that

ofensive linemen look for in order to execute
their zone blocking steps. These linemen are
working in tandem on two defenders.
A linemans landmark on a zone play is the
playside number on the defenders jersey. It is
the landmark where the ofensive blocker has
to get his back knee. These blockers are being taught to keep their shoulders as square as
possible. A tilted noses numbers are not visible
and keeping your shoulders square becomes a
bit more problematic against a nose man who
is providing you with half the landmark surface
that is needed to adequately execute the tandem blocking scheme. Quite often teams would
prefer to attack our weak side where our two
best defenders played (the weak linebacker and
the Flip) and the defensive end provided them
with visible numbers.
The strongside defensive end can play in a
seven technique but we would often play him in a
ive technique in order to encourage the ofense
to attack of the edge. This would direct the point
of attack to the edge where we can bounce the
run to the strongside linebacker and the inside
leveraged corner. The playside safety would fan
(ill as needed) on secondary run support.
The weakside linebacker comes of the edge
hard but usually has the option of coming of
his force if he recognizes screen. We called this a
green dog. We could, however, take this option
away from him when we wanted him to force unencumbered. In such cases we would assign another defender to weak side screen responsibility.
35
IS THE OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR

NEEDY OR GREEDY?
Diagram 2 shows this gap control front
against a two-back set that employs a quarterback who poses no signiicant running threat.
We would also use this front on selected calls
against teams whose quarterback was an efective runner but whose coach desired to protect
as a ball carrier. At irst glance, the defensive set
appears to be quite vulnerable and it certainly
can be in certain situations. The reason for incorporating it into the game plan is threefold. First,
it gives the quarterback one more thing to think
about and it will keep two-deep coverage on his
list of things to look out for. Secondly, it will help
expose an ofensive coordinator who is too passhappy as well as statistic-minded. The old saying
that it is okay to be needy but not greedy is applicable in football today now more than ever.
A greedy ofensive coordinator will sometimes cost his team a game by not taking into
consideration his teams defensive limitations
and abandoning all clock management implications. An additional problem might also arise
when the receivers who are used to catching a
high number of passes are now relegated to
mostly a run blocking role. But probably the
most important beneit of having this front in
your defensive playbook is that if a team cannot
run the ball efectively against it, the defense
now has a tremendous tactical advantage.
One thing that a defensive coordinator should
never do is go into a game conceding that his
players are unable to efectively play a speciic
scheme. There were many times in my career
where we opened a game in this front and soon
discovered that the ofense was unable to efectively run the ball with the Flip linebacker out of
the box. Once I saw this, I stayed with the call for
the rest of the game. Football is a game of matchups and I always cautioned our players to never
look at a comparison score to try to determine
what are chances were of beating an upcoming opponent. The greatest gamble in football is
substituting hope for facts. Wait until the game
starts and then determine how well you match
up against your opponent.
The strong end will play a ive technique and
cancel the B-gap. Certain down and distance
situations or ofensive clock management constraints will at times allow for a seven technique.
DEFENDING THE DEEP MIDDLE SEAM
The precise location of the linebackers hook
drop, or his zone drop on pass plays, is determined by the strength of the formation and his
reads on pass. The drop is adjusted to compensate for the ofenses horizontal stretch scheme.
Interestingly enough, we never made defending
the deep middle seam a primary responsibility for the middle linebacker as is common in
traditional Tampa-2 coverage. Our strongside
36
Diagram 2: BASIC WEAKSIDE REDUCTION GAP CONTROL 50 FRONT WITH COVER-2 COVERAGE
VERSUS A ZONE READ SPREAD SET WITH TWO BACKS IN THE BOX
Diagram 3: BASIC 50 FRONT WITH COVER-2 COVERAGE VERSUS A SET THAT HAS THREE BACKS
IN THE BOX
linebacker and our Flip linebacker were responsible for impeding the vertical releases of these
receivers and rerouting any receiving threat in
this area. We called this taking the receiver of
the interstate and spent a signiicant amount of
practice time on this important responsibility.
It is important to remember that we were
playing inside leveraged corners and, by not funneling the wide receivers, we were able to eliminate a possible threat to the deep middle seam.
Fortunately, the no-chuck ive-yard limitation
rule allowed our defenders to initiate contact farther upield. Playing the safeties at 14 yards and
getting depth at the snap of the ball also played
a signiicant role in securing this area. This depth
made it much easier for safeties to defend this
area. It also made it easier for them to defend to
the boundary against the vertical passing game.
Passing teams used to test the patience of our
safeties because it was impossible to employ
this scheme in a setting that does not allow for

taking receivers of the interstate or breaking
up passes on contact. The tradeof was that in
a real game our safeties almost always recorded
the most interceptions and broke up many plays
running downhill to the reception area.
DEFENDING MOTION TO TRIPS
Flip leaves the box to play the weak curl and
will run across the ield on motion to trips. This
allows the defense to stay in cover-2. It also encourages the ofense to run the ball in a situation where a pass play is preferred or perhaps
even required. The determination of strength for
purposes of setting the defensive line against
balanced sets is determined by the width of the
ield. The strength call in such cases will be to the
width of the ield. This is done so that the strongside linebacker never has to be concerned with
motion. This linebacker will never follow motion

across the ball. Should a team motion to trips toward the boundary side where the Flip linebacker is aligned, the adjustment will come from the
secondary. If an additional defender is needed
for run support purposes, the help will come in
the form of a check from the secondary to either
a quarter-quarter coverage or an inverted threedeep adjustment. The quarter coverage can be
played across the board or with half coverage
away from the quarter-quarter side.
Diagram 4: BASIC 50 FRONT WITH COVER-2 COVERAGE VERSUS A SET THAT HAS TWO BACKS
IN THE BOX
THE BASE 50 PACKAGE

Diagram 3 shows a straight 50 front against
a zone read spread ofense. The straight 50 front
package is important for two reasons. It is needed
to defend teams that are able to execute their
zone read ofense efectively against the weak
side reduction gap control front. This front will
also help you add an element of confusion when
it comes to the quarterbacks run reads and pass
coverage reads. The base 50 package will allow
the defense to include a distinct group of blitz and
stunt calls that will complement the weak side reduction package. This package will give the quarterback a number of pass coverages that he will
have to identify on a down-to- down basis. The
coverage options include cover 2, cover 3, cover
4 (including quarter-quarter-half and quarters
across the board) man free and zero coverage.
Diagram 4 shows a straight 50 front against a
set that has two backs in the box. The weakside
linebacker is playing over air and is able to walk
out and defend the curl zone. Against a trips set,
the secondary has the option of checking into
quarter-quarter coverage or a strongside invert
with a three deep coverage. See Diagrams 5
and 6. S
About the Author: Rey Hernandez recently retired
after coaching for 36 years in the San Diego area.
He coached at Helix High School for 11 years where
he served as the defensive backield coach. He
coached the defensive backs at Grossmont Junior
College for two years and spent his last 23 years of
coaching at La Jolla high School where he was the
defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach.
Hernandez was the head coach at La Jolla for the
last four seasons.
Diagram 5: BASIC 50 FRONT WITH COVER-4 COVERAGE VERSUS A TRIPS SET THAT HAS TWO
BACKS IN THE BOX
Diagram 6: BASIC 50 FRONT WITH COVER-3 COVERAGE VERSUS A TRIPS SET THAT HAS TWO
BACKS IN THE BOX
37
SELF ANALYSIS
Self-Scout your offense for a more effective game plan.
By Rich Hargitt
Passing Game Coordinator and Receivers Coach Ashbrook High School (NC)
40
he game has changed a great deal over

the past decade. It used to be that offensive coordinators could create down
and distance charts and run plays of of
them with a pretty reliable sense of what would
work. However, as the spread, no-huddle era has
exploded onto the scene, it has transformed how
coaches must approach the game.
Our approach is to use statistics, speciically
our ofenses own statistics, to formulate a game
plan. The majority of our game planning time is
spent reviewing what our ofense does well or
what situations it most often inds itself in and
not thinking about what the defense is doing. Defenses are unpredictable and there is no real way
of knowing how they will approach a game.
Our feeling is that it is more helpful to review
our own ofensive tendencies and positions in order to formulate what sort of attack might work.
The charts included here show the basic structures that we use to look into our ofense for an
efective self-scouting system. They allow us to
see if we are calling plays that give us the best
possibility of success. We are an air raid team and
so these work well for us considering our system.
Regardless of the ofensive system you employ, it
is critical that your ofensive coordinator take time
to review key aspects of his play calling in order to

ind hidden tendencies.
I have often reviewed these charts and found
plays that should be called more often simply because they work. Analysis of our ofense really led
us to realize that we were not always focusing on
the correct indicators of success. For instance, we
had always made play sheets with the third down
call in mind. A quick look at our season relected
that we spent very little time in third down situations. We are a pass-heavy team and scored very
quickly more often than not. We realized that not
much practice time should be devoted to third
down plays. Had we not self-scouted, we would
not have been practicing as efectively.
We break the ield into zones to see where we
are attacking the defense with our passes. We realized that explosive plays - plays that gain 10 yards
or more were really the key to scoring those
points. Last fall, we had 126 plays that gained 10
yards or more and those plays generated over
2,000 yards of total ofense. The risks of a few nogain plays are far outweighed by the fact that the
ofense produced over 2,000 yards in only 126
snaps on ofense. This kind of risk/reward is not
only acceptable but it is part of the overall strategy
of a good air raid ofense. Therefore, we spent a
lot of time iguring out which plays resulted in big

gains and called those plays as frequently as possible. We also noted that we did a pretty good job
balancing where these plays were being created
thanks to a review of the ield zone charts.
Self-scouting is really the key component to
gameplanning each week. After all, I can only
control what I call and not what the defense is
actually doing. It is important that the self-scout
only takes into consideration things that will affect your team and your play calling. For instance,
I havent provided a chart on completion percentages because we do not place a great deal of
emphasis on that in our game plan. We focus on
scoring points through the use of explosive plays
and so several of these charts focus on how and
where we can create those types of plays. These
charts are a sampling of the things we look at
when we gameplan our ofense each week. We
obviously look at what defenses our opponents
run and their basic fronts, stunts, and coverages.
However, all those things can change and I cannot
afect them. These categories let me analyze what
situations I am actually in from one week to the
next and what works in each situation.
Here are a number of charts that we use as a
self-scouting tool for gameplanning our ofense:
Chart 1 Field Position We are seeing the frequency of pass plays vs. run plays called by location on the ield.
Chart 2 Downs This shows the percentage of plays called by downs.

41
Chart 3 Play Calling by Downs This shows the breakdown of how often running and pass plays were used by down.
Chart 4 Formations This shows the frequency of each formation used during the season.
Chart 5 Passing Attack Chart by Field Zone This chart breaks down the nine passing zones and the percentage of passes thrown to each zone.
42
Chart 6 Results of Plays This chart shows the success rate of all plays called in 2012.
Chart 7 Plays Resulting in Explosive Yardage This chart indicates plays that resulted in explosive yardage. The plays include:
TTZ Comeback a comeback route to the outside receiver
Florida a lood pass play
TTX Comeback a comeback route to the outside receiver
Texas Tech Switch a 4-verticals exchange pass play
Arizona Pound an isolation running play
Jersey a jet sweep running play
Texas Tech a 4-verticals pass
Giants a counter running play
Houston an all-hitches pass
Arizona/Pittsburgh an inside zone and power running play.
Ducks 3 a swing pass to the running back
43
Many of the traditional categories of self-scouting are now obsolete. For

example, you saw no chart for time of possession in our ofense. That is
because I do not even know how long my team possessed the ball. There
were times that we tried to slow the ofense down to protect the defense
or manage clock and it just slowed down the ofensive production. That is
not to say the ofense can not eat the clock but it is not and should not be
a goal of a modern up-tempo ofense.
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The key to ofense, after all, is to score points. All the other stats in the
world do not matter if you do not score points. Therefore, we focus on the
charts Ive included because they show us what we need to do score
more points than the opposition and that has always been the goal of
every ofense. S
Chart 8 Explosive Play Calls This chart shows the percentage of explosive plays 10 yards or more by run and pass.
Chart 9 Explosive Plays by Pass Zone This chart shows explosive plays - 10 yards or more - in each of the nine pass zones.
45
Coach to Coach continued from page 17
Strength Report continued from page 11
A lack of discipline will always result in unfulilled potential and unreliable results. As a player
develops through the youth and high school
ranks, his coaches can prepare him for future
success by helping him become a disciplined
person. By demanding that he be on time, demanding that he refrain from life choices that
put him and his team in danger, demanding that
he respects his coaches and teammates and by
insisting that he pursue excellence in all areas of
his life, his coaches can help him be a success at
the college level.
Finally, our staf evaluates the entire team immediately after each workout. We huddle and I
ask each coach for the good, the bad and the ugly
from that day. Each coach ofers input on the athletes they worked with that day. We then discuss
any physical and mental trends we might see.
We can then share any insight with the football
coaching staf and head of any potential issues.
In addition to our speciic individual and team
goals, we also coordinate our programs to ensure they comply with the physical standards of
the Mountain West Conference (See Chart 2). S
About the Author: Trent Greener was named

Wyomings Director of Strength and Conditioning
in December, 2008. He is now in his 15th season
as a head strength and conditioning coach on the
FBS level. Greener was previously the strength and
conditioning coach at the University of Washington. A 1990 graduate of Wyoming, Greener was a
defensive lineman for the Cowboys and two-year
letterman. He has also coached at Purdue, Northern Illinois, and Oregon State.
Be Enthusiastic
It may be a simple concept but enthusiasm
is a great predictor and a necessary component
of long term success. Ralph Emerson correctly
states, Enthusiasm is one of the most powerful
engines of success. When you do a thing, do it
with all your might. Put your whole soul into it.
Stamp it with your own personality. Be active, be
energetic, be enthusiastic and faithful, and you
will accomplish your object. Nothing great was
ever achieved without enthusiasm.
Most people are enthusiastic in areas they are
gifted in and enjoy. The athlete who can be enthusiastic about things that challenge him physically,
mentally and emotionally is ultimately more apt
to succeed. When I am recruiting a young man I
can usually tell if he is naturally enthusiastic within
the irst few minutes of meeting him. The way the
player carries himself, the look on his face, the way
he walks, the way he shakes my hand, enthusiasm is not hard to spot. Genuine enthusiasm is
infectious. A team full of enthusiastic players is a
team that ultimately will succeed. The athlete who
hates to get out of bed, who dislikes sitting in the
classroom and cant wait for the class to be over,
who gets through practice instead of getting into
practice and who only displays enthusiasm after
personal success on the football ield is the athlete
who will never reach his potential and in the process will bring others around him down.
We can encourage our athletes to be enthusiastic by demonstrating enthusiasm on a daily
basis. We should explain why its important to be
enthusiastic about education, enthusiastic about
efort, enthusiastic about overcoming hardships
and enthusiastic about helping teammates succeed. Enthusiasm is something we can encourage and require of our athletes. The enthusiastic student-athlete will have a better chance to
overcome the challenges that will present themselves and will ultimately have a great chance of
walking across the stage on graduation day .
Finally, there are many great coaches who understand that their world and their job is more
than just winning games on Fridays or Saturdays.
Coaches who take pride in the acknowledgement that true success should be measured by
both the on-ield and of-the-ield success of
their players are the true great coaches of our
profession. V
Chart 2: Mountain West Physical Standards
STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP,
MANAGEMENT AND CIRCULATION
(Required by 39 U.S.C. 3685)
Title of publication: American Football Monthly
Publication Number: 018-066
Filing Date: 9/30/13
Frequency: Monthly except a combined issue in Aug/Sept & Oct/Nov & a special winter issue
in January
Number of issues published annually: 11
Annual Subscription price: $39
Mailing address of publication/headquarters:
AFM Media, LLC
600 Sand tree Dr., Suite 212
Palm Beach Gardens, FL 33403
Publisher: John Gallup
Owner: AFM Media, 600 Sand tree Dr., Suite 212
Palm Beach Gardens, FL 33403
Stockholder: John A Clark
Issue Date for Circulation Data below: July 2013
Average # of
copies each issue
during preceding
12 months
Actual # of copies
of single issues
published nearest
to iling date
Total # of copies:
Paid circulation through
-Other classes of mail
-Outside the mail
-Mail subscriptions
Total paid circulation
11500
11500
15
190
5973
6178
10
186
5650
5846
Free distribution by mail on PS Form 3541:

Free distribution by other classes of mail:
Free distribution outside the mail:
Total Free distribution:
5053
176
77
5306
5305
82
250
5637
Total Distribution:
Copies not distributed:
11484
16
11483
17
Total:
Percent paid circulation:
11500
54%
11500
51%
I certify that these statements are correct and complete:

h l k
49
MANAGING YOUR
www.cytosport.com
w
Presented by
PROGRAM
By Keith Grabowski
B
GIVING PLAYERS A
FOCUS FOR THE
OFF-SEASON
or most programs, January is the start of

the of-season.The gains made in the next
six months are critical and must happen in
order to have success in the fall. Keeping players
focused and moving toward their goals and the
teams goals sometimes is a challenge when the
season is so far of. Having a system to provide
feedback and recognize the accomplishments
of players as they develop themselves helps
motivate and create excitement while working
through the winter months.
Following the 2008 season, I began my irst
of-season with a struggling program. We played
a varsity schedule in 2008 with only two senior
starters and two junior starters. We were basically a junior varsity team made up of freshmen and
sophomores. While we were able to compete in
every game, at some point our lack of
size, speed, and strength caused us major problems.
Coming in, I knew an of-season commitment was a challenge at this school.
We had to completely change the culture and motivate our players to train
to be athletes. We talked about some of
the typical clubs that most programs
use like the 250-pound bench club or
the 1,000-pound club for a series of lifts.
The irst thing we realized was that both
of those were a little too far out of reach
for our athletes to accomplish in one ofseason. We also realized that while developing strength would help us immensely,
it probably would not be enough. We
needed to develop the total athlete.
To accomplish this, we set standards
in four lifts, the bench, squat, clean, and
dead lift. We also set standards in the dot
drill to measure foot quickness, and the
vertical jump and broad jump to measure power. We wanted to set a standard
50
for the 40-yard dash, but we didnt have any indoor space where we would be able to perform a
40-yard run. We set two levels, which if a majority
of athletes reached just the basic level, we would
be much better on the ield. We designated the
levels with our two colors, red and black. Red
signiied varsity ready and black signiied top
athlete. We set our goals at an attainable level
with plans to increase the standards in the future
as we began to develop more and more athletes
in our program. Players were very motivated by
seeing their row of the chart ill up with the red
and black logos.
We decided on an approach that would provide feedback every four weeks and we made
a chart on which either a black or a red logo
would be placed when the player reached that
standard in an area being measured (See chart).

Once a player reached all standards for a level, he
would be awarded with a t-shirt, and when the
season started he would receive a practice jersey
designating the level he reached.
Our practice jerseys were white, and we said
to our players that they would earn their colors
in the of-season. They would receive a practice
jersey that signiied what they accomplished in
preparation for the season.
One of our biggest premises was that attendance would make a huge diference. If we could
motivate our athletes to show up and work, then
our program would take care of the rest. At the
end of every four-week cycle, we recognized any
standard reached as well as perfect attendance.
It was no surprise that those who were being
awarded for perfect attendance were
the same players whose charts began to
Standards for Lifts, Quickness and Power
ill up with red and black logos.
Our short awards and recognition
session at the end of every four weeks
was something our athletes looked
forward to. We loved being able to
recognize many athletes as we moved
through the of-season months. The
athletes loved seeing the progress they
were making as the chart illed up with
red and black logos.
The program really helped attendance and our athletes were physically
developing like we hoped they would.
While I moved on to a position at the
college level, one of my assistants used
this program at his irst coaching job.
He took a school that won one or two
games a season to a perfect 10-0 season
and the schools irst playof berth. He
attributed much of their success to the
work done in the of-season. V
Clint Jenkins
Ofensive Coordinator, Baldwin Wallace University

O

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Confuse the Quarterback (Part I)

Self Analysis: Self-Scout Your Offense

46. Back to School 2014 Coaching Clinics

Managing Your Program:

The No-Huddle Power Pistol Ofense

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GETTING STRONGER IN 2014

ow that your season has ended, its time to focus on what

Managing Editor: Rex Lardner

Volume 19 December 2013 No. 10

AMERICAN FOOTBALL MONTHLY

The National Lineman

12 athletes and two coaches often the premier

NFL Prep Leadership presentation to breakout

events where athletes competed for a team time

LINEMEN LEAD THE WAY

The Detroit Lions captured

Visit www.NFLHSPD.com and enter the promo code AFM1013.

Presented by Samson 800-472-6766

hen you begin the of-season with

ture often because of its relativity to human

1. Periodization: Its Critical

So much is made of resisted (load work) and

3. Load Work Early

along with the foundation of mechanics being

4. Assisted Speed Training

he phrase of-season has a little different meaning at the United States

limit for the Collegiate Sprint Football League

form the physical demands of their respective

Pro Agility Shuttle

Diagram 1: Pro Agility Drill

Three cones are placed to form an L. Cones

Four Cone Drill

Diagram 2: 3-Cone L Drill

Sprint football at West Point places a premium

Diagram 3: Four Cone Drill

the current winter program inishes. We evaluate

Chart 1: Wyoming Winter Program Design Format Over 7 weeks

entire body and include the power clean, back

situations for younger teams to showcase how

and performance testing standards as well as the

onsidering the pounding they likely have

What should coaches or equipment managers

Are reconditioned helmets as safe as new helmets?

Xenith X2 helmets are reconditioned at the

The simple answer is yes, reconditioning can

How is it decided when a helmet should be replaced instead of being reconditioned?