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The full text of “Strength Report: An In-Season Strength and Conditioning Program for High School Athletes” by Tobias Jacobi, from the Vol 1 — Summer 2018 issue.
Page 4STRENGTH REPORT By Tobias Jacobi • Strength and Conditioning Coach • Strong Roc A fter almost two decades in the field of strength and condition - ing, I have heard many things when it comes to in-season training. The bottom line for me has al - ways been why work hard and lift hard during the offseason and summer then back off during the sea - son? Now you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to understand that you want to be the strongest during the season, so you must lift hard during the season.
Another factor when deal - ing with the high school athlete is that most of your better players usually will be multi-sport athletes so you must work through that factor as well. When dealing with our training programs I implement a program based off sport, chronological age, train - ing age, and movement screening. On top of all that each athlete will have an off-season, in-season, An In-Season Strength and Con Program for High School At
Page 55 k High School (GA) and game day program on their training sheets every day we strength train (See Chart page 6). I am very blessed to be given the opportunity to speak on our training pro - gram at the 2017 NSCA National Convention this past July and a lot of my ditioning letes presentation discussed a large part of this subject. Because of the nature of the high school multi-sport athlete you must training consistently and perform movements all year-round to ensure progress.
Like I said earlier, on our training sheets each kid is given a workout with an off-sea - son, in-season, and game day program on it. The inseason program we imple - ment is 15% less in vol - ume and intensities than our off-season program, while our game day train - ing is 30% less in volume and intensities. Doing this allows for con - stant training and progress throughout the season.
Implementing a program in this way has allowed for me to continue progress for our kids plus implementing the programs I believe we need to with other sports as well. One of the biggest topics for a high school strength coach is lifting on game day during the season. I have done it both ways in my time at Strong Rock. When I started we lifted on game day because I utilized a traditional 4-day split with Wednesday’s off.
I since have switched our training program to lift 4 straight days then perform either speed work, pre-hab work, or mobility and flex - ibility work on Friday’s. For our situation at Strong Rock, I believe this is the best for us to be prepared at peak levels. One thing I did not discuss is our cra - zy class schedule which is difficult because I do not get my kids at the same times back to back days or for the same amount of time on back to back days.
Needless to say, being a master of our schedule is something that is critical for us to be successful. With 95% of our kids train - ing within the school day in our Athletic Performance classes we must train with a goal of improvement and progress which relates to our grading in the class. At the end of the fall se - mester we do testing to evaluate our progress dur - ing the semester. Train -
Page 66 ing hard and consistently throughout the fall allows for constant progress to be made. Working with mul - tiple coaches who share athletes can be difficult but implementing the sys - tem I have has allowed for coaches to buy-in as they see the progress of the athletes. Sample Strength and Conditioning Chart
Page 8S imilar to other teams, we spend time each week working on tackling and turn - over (TNT) drills. In the past, we typi - cally felt satisfied at the conclusion of each TNT drill as our defense seemed to grasp the fundamentals of tackling and forcing turn - overs. However, when we reached game day and even team practice scenarios, our drills did not seem to translate to the field. Often, we missed tackles (especially in open-field situations) and our players suddenly lacked focus when it came to forcing turnovers.
After a few close losses, our defensive staff came to the realization that our defense was not finishing with the same tackling funda - mentals that we began the game with. Our practice style needed to change. Our focus immediately went to more tackling in prac - tice. DRILLS REPORT Unfortunately, with roster numbers in the 80s, a large amount of tackling over the course of weekly practice would have a negative im - pact on our overall team health.
After further examination, our defensive staff determined that most of our missed tackles occurred in open-field situations and often in the later stages of games. Since most of our defensive players are also mainstays on our special teams, it became ap - parent that our core group was being highly used. A simple solution would have been to remove certain players from special teams in order for them to conserve energy. This solu - tion was not viable because of the obvious weakening of our special teams.
Our solution was to simulate the numerous by: Brian Bubna Defensive Coordinator, MIT Drills Report: Running and Tackling Drills - A Twist for TNT Drills “ With the spread offense, players often make contact with the ball carrier after some pursuit “
