First week of lifting went very well and I was impressed with the original commitment the players made to improving themselves. The players seemed to understand the lifts outlined for them, but I wanted to make a couple of adjustments to get more lifts in for the allocated time we had in the weigh room. I have instituted a time limit to each station now that we are not maxing out. This will force the guys to concentrate on the lifting and eliminate the chit chat that goes on. I want the guys to enjoy their time, but also want them to work hard and not use this as a mess around time. In addition, I researched some more lifts that will keep the guys interested that will work different muscle groups.
Same set up as Tuesday, open gym followed by lifting. This time, we were maxing out the lower body. We only had 2 core lifts today so it went by a lot quicker. The guys were energized and focused again today. We were missing some players due to vacation, etc., but for the most part all players were able to get me the numbers I requested for the max. This is going to be a starting point and a way to judge to see if they put in the time needed in the offseason to gain muscle. Now that all the lifts have been explained, a lot is going to be put on their shoulders to get better. A coach can only do so much with 2 days allotted, the rest is going to have to come with their own intrinsic motivation. We will see how they progress over time.
Today is the first day of lifting as a team for our players. We have 2 hours set aside for open gym and lifting to follow. I love going to the open gyms and watching and communicating with players to get to know them on a personal level. This is very fulfilling to me and is a nice change of pace from my full time job. After open gym concludes, I am able to take the players to the weight room and pass out the strength program I have designed. I briefly go through the exercises we are going to do today and the bigger picture scheme. Before we walked in to lift, I set up 5 stations for the guys to make things easier and to space out the players. Today, we are maxing out the upper body. We only have 30 minutes, so I wanted to get these guys focused on getting this done so we can get all the statistics for my spreadsheets. We ended up going a little over the 30 minutes allocated, but it was because the players were pushing themselves to get higher numbers. It was very rewarding to see each and every one of them putting in the max effort. Day 1 went very smoothly.
Challenge: A lot of guys form was off because they had never lifted in high school. This was very odd to me, but I am determined to get this fixed. This morning, I was able to work and finalize the spreadsheets for the upcoming first lifting session. I was able to list all the players currently on our roster and identify the core lifts we want to focus on improving. A lot of the focus is on the upper body as a lot of our players have identified this as a weakness. I am going to push this hard and try to convince these players the importance of strength training. When I first entered college, I didn't realize the importance of this until a couple of years into the process. Motivational factors are going to play a huge role. Most of my time was trying to format Excel spreadsheets as well as crate a design that would be appealing. Finished just in time before the 4th of July celebration!
Full lifting program can be found in the Projects Section. Finally finishing up the strength program after a full understanding of the needs the coaching staff wants to see. As mentioned before, we are going to start off with kids maximizing their lifts. From these numbers, the players will use 60%, 70% and 80% of that max to work on gaining strength over the next few weeks. For example, if they maxed out in bench at 100 lbs., their first lift would be 60lbs. I want to eliminate all the confusion of how much weight they should be lifting and so forth. I have finished the detailed explanation of all the lifts for the players to use when they are not at the facility (located in the projects section). There has been a lot of time and effort (mainly formatting) to try and help these players gain some muscle mass that will help them on the court!
The OG today drew our biggest amount of numbers we have seen thus far. The kids are spreading the word and other players are showing up resulting in a very competitive environment. In addition, we get to see some young talent that could potentially be a recruit for us in the upcoming years. As a recruiter, you must always be thinking about the future, even if you have a full roster. The biggest aspect is making a positive impression right away. It was very nice to see some of our kids compete and want to win in the offseason. Competitive nature in meaningless games is very encouraging sight to see for when games actually count.
After the open gym, all the coaches sat down and typed out several new LOI as a few player decided to commit elsewhere. After seeing a recruit compete today, we were convinced to offer him a scholarship. We completed the LOI and sent it out to him, but not before we sat him down and talked about how impressed we were. The staff is really hoping we can get this kid as he would be a tremendous asset for our team. But, as we have learned, we need to have a Plan B as these young men tend to change their ind quite frequently. Today, I stopped by the college after work and met with the academic side of operations here at ESCC. Myself and another assistant coach, Chet, met and got to know the team. We went over academic requirements and a lot of paperwork that needed to be completed by our student-athletes. This is a constant learning process of both the athletic and academic departments. There are a lot of hoops that coaches have to jump thru outside of the actual coaching aspect. Thankfully, we have a supportive AD (formed Tiffin football coach) that is very knowledgeable in these areas. Overall, both departments want the student to succeed. This is very comforting to be a part of a staff that truly cares for these young men.
Another open gym and another opportunity to get to know the players. The open gym went by smoothly today. Most of our time was surrounded around recruiting and trying to get a hold of players. At the moment, we have 2 available scholarships and have identified 4 players we would like to bring in for a tryout and offer .5 tuition. The one thing I have figured out is the strategy is a constant back and forth. Do we offer a full? Do we offer a .5? Can we get them as a walk on? These are the constant back and forth we have been dealing with over the past couple of weeks. In addition, we have a player that we offered a scholarship to that is having issues with some of his state testing. Is he going to be accepted academically to the college? At this moment, we do not know and are developing a Plan B if he cannot make it.
This Sunday morning I decided to visit Edison once again to get a better scope of the specific equipment in the weight room. With such a confined space, I am going to have to form groups and have them rotate after a certain amount of time. The whole program is based off of having the players max out the first day and then lifting a certain percentage of that maximum lift. This will allow for them to increase their strength and to monitor the exact weight they should be lifting. This will eliminate the downtime they will spend trying to figure out how much weight they should be lifting. We will have a program outlining exactly what they should be doing.
After I gathered all the info I needed, I went back to creating a spreadsheet with all the players names to record their progress. I want to be able to see if they stuck to the plan and increased their strength this offseason. A lot of their progress will have to be self monitored and utilized on their own time as we only have them coming to the facility twice a week. The challenge will be motivating these 18-19 year old young men to put in the time without coach supervision. After spending time examining the weight room and talking to the players and coaches, I have an idea of the certain lifts I want to do. My first step was contacting my former college basketball coach and picking his brain on how he designed our lifting when I played. He went over certain lifts that are surrounded around basketball movements that I will use for this program. After my conversation and jotted notes, I did some research myself. I looked at various strength training apps and took bits and pieces from several locations. I did not complete the entirety of the program, but was able to get a solid start in developing spreadsheets and detailing the operations and fundamentals of specific lifts. The worst thing that can happen is a player to injure himself by not using the proper mechanics.
|