May 2021 - 30

Strength & Conditioning
an eye for dysfunction. Many will find it in their
best interest to participate, as in the long run it
will help reduce the number of injuries, give them
more info to work with, and allow them to be
more proactive than reactive in their treatment.
NETWORK WITH OTHER COACHES
If you do not have a staff of athletic trainers
on campus available to help, then a good
option is to approach other qualified strength
coaches in your area to assist you. With all
the high schools, junior colleges, universities,
and pro teams out there, there are plenty of
individuals with the skills you need and that
share the same problems that you do. Asking
a fellow strength coach to spend a few hours
helping you is not a huge commitment, and
is one many will happily do, especially if you
are willing to do the same in return. Earlier
in my career, I approached a counterpart at
another school in the area, and we agreed to
help each other screen our athletes. It proved
to be a win for both of us, as hundreds of our
athletes suddenly got access to all the FMS
had to offer. It is very easy to locate and get
in contact with fellow coaches in this day and
age, so don't be afraid to reach out and explore
that option.
ALUMNI IN THE PRIVATE SECTOR
In addition to coaches in your area, there are
often other individual professionals in the private
sector that may have the skills needed to help
you. There are a number of doctors, physical
therapists, personal trainers, occupational
therapists, and chiropractors out there that
utilize the FMS regularly, and they could
potentially be a huge asset to you. If you have
former student-athletes in these professions or
are lucky enough to be at a school with a strong
alumni base that likes to give back, then this is
another potential opportunity. Depending on
your relationship with these individuals, you
may be fortunate enough to get people that
are willing to help for free, but overall, it may
be more likely that you need to offer financial
compensation in order to secure a commitment.
Given the infrequency of the payment, it
definitely a worthwhile investment.
30 | Training & Conditioning | Video Playbook 2021
MINIMIZE
If none of the above options are possible for
you, and you find yourself alone, or perhaps
with the help of only the head sport coach,
then I suggest that you change your mindset
and approach considerably. Although this
situation is hardly ideal, it is still possible to do
some positive screening for your athletes. The
first thing to do is to divorce yourself from the
idea of having to give each individual athlete
a final score. It would be ineffective and timeconsuming
to try to get all that screening done
on your own. Instead, try focusing on the two
highest priority tests, the active straight leg
raise and shoulder mobility. It is a minimal
test battery that can still be carried out by
one individual if necessary while maintaining
a substantial payoff.
If I find myself in this
situation with a huge group, we usually take
three days, with day one being ASLR, day
two shoulder mobility, and on day three I add
a simple wall ankle mobility screen. Although
this minimal battery is not as rigorous or
comprehensive as I would like, I still end up
finding plenty of limitations for our athletes to
work on. In the end, even without a final score,
athletes are being made aware of restrictions,
and are given methods to correct them. In turn,
this still helps them improve movement quality
and become more injury-resistant.
In conclusion, the resources that each high
school athletic department has at its disposal
are extremely varied throughout the country.
There is a wide variance in terms of budget,
personnel, facilities, and access to quality training.
It is just not realistic that we will have the ability
to approach everything in the same manner as
those at higher levels. There is always a need
to be creative and think outside the box when
it comes to training high school athletes. In the
last 15 years, we have used all of the approaches
mentioned above at one time or another, and
recommend them to you if you find yourself in a
similar circumstance. n
Colin Peuse is the Director of Athletic
Performance at Sacred Heart Cathedral
Preparatory in San Francisco, CA. He can be
reached at cpeuse@shcp.edu
May 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of May 2021
