So it's January in Michigan. Whether you won a state title last year or missed the playoffs, the season's been over for more than a month. The equipment is stored, the awards are handed out and the coaches and players are looking forward to next year and no longer back on last year. At least, that's how it is here at Groves. Off-season strength and speed training is in full swing, and hopefully athletes are either playing a winter sport or working towards their spring sport. So, what can we do to make better defensive linemen now?
For one, be flexible and encourage participation in other sports. We don't want athletes burnt out or turned off from this great game. We want them to love playing football and it should be something they always look back fondly upon. That said, they better be accountable and accounted for. We make sure every athlete in the program is somewhere from January to June. If they're in season for another sport, great! If not, well then they better be coming to team workouts. For our D-Linemen, even those in season for another sport, it is vital they continue to strength train. The position requires power, which cannot be developed without first increasing an athlete's absolute strength. We focus on the power development in the summer, which means from January to June the athlete must work at adding strength in the weightroom. If an athlete is in-season for another sport, you need to have conversations with those coaches about getting the DL into the weightroom 2-3 times per week and develop a plan specific for that athlete. For these athletes, you'll have to be creative and meet his needs in various ways. But, the more you can get him with the group of DL, the better.
Find ways to incorporate competition into training. The most important movement patterns for defensive linemen are squats and presses. Think about it, at the snap what movements are you asking your DL to complete? He needs to fire out of his stance and use his quadriceps to explode into his gap, then engage his hands onto a target and press the target off him while controlling his gap. In other words, squat and press. A coaching cue I use during DL drills is "bench press him off you". It helps connect what we do in the weightroom to the field. So, here's where you can bring in competition. On upper body days, have DL challenge others for rep-offs of fail sets. On lower days, incorporate a sled drive competition or a pause squat challenge. I would avoid back squats to failure for safety, but you can work goblet or front squats for reps. Be creative! This is a great opportunity to take a younger athlete, say an upcoming junior, and match him up against a senior-to-be and test his metal. It can really pay off in August when that junior knows he can hang with the upper-classman. Tire flips and axe swings are also great competition opportunities.
Find ways to teach and rep technique in the weightroom or otherwise. In Michigan, we do not have spring football. Thus, there's no need to prepare our athletes for full practices in May. On the other hand, we don't have the ability to practice in earnest until August. So, one way to help keep your athletes sharp and improve position-specific skills is to incorporate technique work into workouts or group training sessions. This also allows for an opportunity for upperclassmen to teach the younger athletes, which is a win-win. One thing we do 1-2 times weekly is have the DL work mirror drills between sets/stations. This allows stance and key read work, which they can never do enough of! We also work hand placement drills and get offs depending on the flavor of the day/week. No pads, no equipment, just old fashioned foot and hand placement work. 90% mental, and takes very little time or energy to fit into a workout session. I highly encourage you to find time for these.
Film work. I go back and forth on this one. How much? How often? What is useful to watch? A few years ago I had 4 returning starters, so in February we began bi-weekly meetings where each senior-to-be led a 15 minute meeting on the nuances of his position, which included film cut-ups the athlete put together himself. This was great, as it allowed the athletes to own the meeting and the younger DL learned a bunch. The following year, I had exactly one DL returning with any varsity experience. Obviously, the above method wasn't going to work. I had to run and teach meetings myself, and here's where the line between being necessary and an over-burden can become blurred. As coaches, we want to teach every nuance possible and cram as much into a meeting as possible. But, a 16 year old sitting in a film session in February when he's taken zero reps as a varsity athlete isn't always fully interested or invested in that process. He doesn't get it yet. I'm always teetering back and forth on this point. How frequent should we meet? What is valuable to spend time on? What will just have to be retaught in summer/fall anyway? These are all things to consider before scheduling those mandatory film sessions. What is a MUST, though, is it make sure you show cut-ups from last season of GREAT technique from your group and sit down at some point in the off-season to watch it as a group. You can save the "improvement clips" for down the road, but showing guys how it's supposed to be done re-energizes them for the next workout. Trust me.
Camps and combines. Yes, and yes. Allow your athletes to go. They'll come back with some new technique or drill they learned and push you to run it. And, while you may have to "uncoach" something they learned at one of these deals, the experience they get of competing and testing their metal against guys from other places is worth it in my opinion. We've had a slew of Division 1 OL in our area lately, and when our DL can get a chance to compete against these guys it's always a bonus. Another option you have is to organize and run your own camp. I've thought of doing this for a long time, and maybe will do it someday. We do run OL/DL camps during the summer as part of our normal training (who doesn't?), but a nice winter/spring technique camp could be a good program builder. I'll let you know if we ever move forward and do one.
Last, and most important, is to use the winter to begin building leadership skills in your athletes. There are tons of materials out there on leadership, and every coach has his own methods. I'm not going to go into all that here (maybe a future blog post?), but I'll say that NOW is the time you forge those leadership skills. If you wait until August, it's too late! Find a way, or try something new this off season, to get your DL into leadership roles and counsel them on how to handle the responsibilities. Simply placing a kid in charge of his peers or in charge of a task is not teaching him leadership. You must teach him how to lead, how to handle situations and mange people. If you do nothing other than lift weights and teach leadership skills this offseason, you'll already be further along than most of your opponents!
#4and1 #KAI20
No comments:
Post a Comment