January/February 2025 - 16

LRU is centrally located in the South Atlantic Conference.
Away games are not far (three hours max), and most games
are 1 PM or 2 PM kickoff. Our team rarely makes overnight
trips or returns to campus after midnight following an away
game. This is usually the case for many small college athletic
conferences due to operating budget and academic priority.
These reasons are what makes it realistic for our team
to train and practice consistently on Sunday evenings.
There are several benefits to training the day following
the competition. One benefit of using Sunday is the
timeliness with which coaches and support staff learn the
status of their team. If a player has an injury, it should be
communicated and known by Sunday afternoon. Monday
then becomes a heavy academic and treatment day. There
should be no surprises entering Tuesday morning.
The downside of moving the required day off (RDO) to
Monday is that there never is a true day off. It should be
noted that many small colleges require academic labs on
Monday. This means that if practice is to be held on
Monday, it would have to begin late in the evening.
Deciding to lift on Monday morning creates a marathon of
a day. In this scenario, Tuesday morning becomes a fast
turnaround (less than 12 hours). Cafeteria closure on
Monday night can also prove to be an issue.
THE TRAINING PROGRAM
Create an organized training structure that can be
used for large teams. Our football team begins the
season with 160 players. Ideally, we break our roster up
into three groups of 50-60 (offense, defense, and
developmental). With 14 double-sided racks, this puts
us at around four players per training station. Unless you
have easy access to a large turf area, it is most efficient
to perform a movement prep and dynamic warm-up in
place. To achieve this, we use a variety of mobility and
plyometric drills.
16 COACH & A.D. | JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2025
Once complete, the group is introduced to Block 1. We
use explosive movements, paired with pre-hab exercises
during this block. Explosive movements we emphasize
for upper body in-season are single-arm land mine, split
jerk, and jammer split jerk. Lower body explosive
movements are hex bar and barbell clean pull, as well as
front and back squats with accommodating resistance.
Block 1 will always act as a continuation of our warmup
to prepare the athlete's body for the strength movement
in Block 2.
In Block 2, we focus on a strength movement and pair
that movement with exercises that act as the main muscle
group antagonist. The main strength movements we
focus on for our lower body are hex bar and barbell
deadlift, barbell Zercher squat, and RDL. The main
strength movements we focus on for our upper body are
the barbell Z press and 2 and 3 board bench press.
In-season, we don't usually have time for a Block 3. If
we do, Block 3 involves high volume at an accelerated
pace. The goal is to make Block 3 as glycolytic as possible.
A major point of emphasis in our program is being elite at
the fundamentals. This means taking pride in executing
the traditional barbell movements.
A premium is placed on being organized with these
large groups. This is accomplished through groups
performing each set on a whistle. The next athlete in the
group does not begin their next set until the lead coach
signals the group and blows their whistle. This allows us
to see more reps and make error corrections. I work with
a staff of younger coaches who are beginning their
careers. These individuals are first-year interns, graduate
assistants, and first-year full-time coaches. Tasking them
in this system gives them responsibility, allows them to
contribute, and puts them in an authority role in front of
student-athletes. Our messaging to athletes is that
training should look, sound, and feel like a practice.
January/February 2025

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