Building a strength training plan for incoming college athletes
The transition from high school to college athletics is one of the most significant developmental periods in a young athlete’s life, and freshmen enter college with varying levels of training experience, physical maturity and technical proficiency.
Safety is always at the forefront of what we do, and no singular workout is more important than an athlete’s well-being.
As strength and conditioning coaches, we want to make sure we equip our athletes with the necessary tools and knowledge to confidently train at a high level and maximize their abilities. Therefore, teaching fundamental strength and conditioning principles from Day 1 is essential to long-term athletic development and success.
The primary objectives of our strength program are to minimize the likelihood of injury, maximize an athlete’s genetic potential and enhance athletic performance.When training incoming freshmen, we don’t panic if their strength numbers aren’t astronomical. Instead, our mindset is to develop athletes who can train safely, effectively and consistently over the course of their college careers. Yes, we collect a good amount of baseline data, measurables and metrics on our incoming freshmen, but we keep it simple. Our approach is to use this information as a roadmap to help build a plan of action for each athlete.
We want to help our athletes obtain long-term success, which starts with mastering fundamental movement patterns, understanding training principles, developing discipline and embracing a commitment to continuous evolution.
Creating a growth mindset
Before significant gains can occur, athletes must learn proper techniques and become adept with specific skills or movements such as squatting, hinging, pressing, pulling, carrying, sprinting and jumping. It is important to prioritize movement quality and technical proficiency before emphasizing heavier loads. Having a strong foundation built on the fundamentals will not only enhance performance but also promote long-term durability throughout an athlete’s career.
Before significant gains can occur, athletes must learn proper techniques and become adept with specific skills or movements.
Lastly, helping young athletes understand the importance of rep integrity, practicing good habits and being intentional and deliberate all before worrying about their next personal record creates a growth mindset rather than a fixed one.
A comprehensive year-round strength and conditioning program using proper periodization will break training into specific phases designed to maximize adaptation while managing stress. The progressive overload principle serves as the foundation of our program design. We want to systematically increase training stress through load, volume, tempo or complexity, allowing athletes to continually adapt and improve while minimizing injury risk. Staying true to your philosophy and training plan while consistently pursuing refinement of this process will allow your athletes to unleash their truest potential.
The importance of the offseason
The offseason serves as the foundational building block to our annual training plan and is focused on improving an athlete’s general physical preparedness.
During this phase of training, freshmen are being inundated with new concepts but with a single, consistent objective for all: development. As a staff, we want to focus on developing both relative and absolute strength, increasing lean muscle mass, improving movement efficiency and addressing individual weaknesses. This enables athletes to build the physical capacities necessary for future training and athletic performance. Freshmen will benefit from this phase as it provides an opportunity to establish proper training habits, understand the program philosophy and make significant developmental gains.
As the program transitions into the summer training phase, freshmen should have a clear understanding of what to do, how to do it and why they are doing it. Strength will remain a priority, but we look to become more proficient at increasing the rate of force development to enhance speed and power.
We will continue working on movement skills, game speed prep, acceleration to deceleration, curved runs, plyometrics and conditioning to build the most well-rounded athletes we can. The objective is to head into fall camp with athletes being as physically prepared as possible to endure the rigors of what lies ahead in their competitive season.
Beyond physical development
Once the competitive season begins, we will separate the team into two training groups: a two-deep group and our developmental group. All freshmen are placed in the developmental group and will lift three to four times per week depending on if they make the travel roster. We view this time of the year as an opportunity to continue to develop and increase the athlete’s strength, power, speed, mobility, flexibility and overall preparedness. We will train hard but smart and will incorporate recovery work and techniques, being mindful of the stress placed upon the athletes from competition.
Safety is always at the forefront of what we do, and no singular workout is more important than an athlete’s well-being. Our strength staff is fully committed to helping the athletes learn how to effectively manage their time and create a process that teaches them how to take care of their mind and body.
Lastly, as a strength and conditioning coach or professional, it is important to think outside the box when it comes to developing athletes and not become solely enamored with the physical. There is a lot more that goes into the daily grind and responsibilities of this job that cannot be measured quantitatively.
Beyond physical development, coaches must also emphasize mental toughness, accountability, discipline and resilience. Building strong relationships with athletes helps foster trust and allows coaches to positively impact their personal growth. When athletes know they are valued as people first, they are more likely to reach their full potential both on and off the field. Every day, every workout, every meeting with an athlete presents an opportunity to develop these relationships, which could be the most important part of their development.
In the end, athlete development never stops, but it is critically important to get off to a great start. Keep it simple, be safe, be efficient, be consistent and more times than not, it will be effective.
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