| 2 – Plyometrics |
When football players hit the gym, they usually focus on either heavy weight training to build size and strength or specific drills to improve athletic performance at a combine-style skills showcase. Both styles of training are important, and both styles have their place.
But maybe more than any other sport, football—with its sheer speed and raw collisions—demands explosive hips, cutting ability, and agility to transition quickly between acceleration and deceleration.
That’s why plyometric exercises are so valuable for football players. Plyometrics—up-and-down, side-to-side, and twisting movements—develop both strength and speed, activate the body’s central nervous system, and stimulate fast-twitch muscle fibers that enable the athlete to generate force quickly.
Plyometrics also help defend a player’s body against injury on the field by improving an athlete’s “elasticity,” the ability to withstand the rapid loads and muscle lengthening that occurs on each play. Think of a wide receiver straining to catch the ball or a defensive end maneuvering toward the quarterback—those motions demand explosive elasticity.
Plyometrics, also known as jump training or plyos, are exercises in which muscles exert maximum force in short intervals of time, with the goal of increasing power (speed-strength). This training focuses on learning to move from a muscle extension to a contraction in a rapid or “explosive” manner, such as in specialized repeated jumping.
Strength training improves how much force an athlete can produce, plyometric training can help athlete’s produce this force more quickly.
This is important because a large number of actions in sport occur within fractions of a second, and plyometric exercises give athlete’s the opportunity to express force at more sport-specific speeds.
It is important to differentiate between jumping, hopping and leaping and what I would refer to as a ‘true’ plyometric.
This difference is more than just semantic. The reason why it is important is because each of these activities carries a different level of training stress.
Athlete’s get injured because the stress that is applied to them exceeds their ability to tolerate it.
I use the word stress rather than training because when working with school kids, injuries are far more common around exam period independent of changes in physical training loads
Jumps are defined by a double leg takeoff or landing with a horizontal or vertical emphasis.
Hops are defined by the takeoff and landing occurring on the same leg. These can have a horizontal or vertical focus.
Leaps are defined by the takeoff and landing occurring on different legs.
Jumps, hops and leaps can all become plyometric exercises if an element of ground time is introduced. By ground contact time, I simply mean the time it takes for an athlete to make contact with the ground and rebound off of it.
This session focuses on
– Back Squats
The first initial goal is to achieve a 1 rep max with good form of 1.5 x your body weight. The end goal is to have double body weight back squat. If you can squat double your body weight, you are strong.
– Glute Ham Raise
The key to becoming athletic and improving your vertical is by strengthening your POSTERIOR CHAIN.
– Split Squat Variations
Developing leg strength with single leg variations that challenge your balance and stability is also another very important key. These variations, if done right, also hit the glutes hard!
– Loaded Carry Variations
There are a lot of different variations that can be used here but the reason these are a powerful tool set for athletes is because depending on the variation, they help improve core strength and help develop acceleration.
– Med Ball Throws
In terms of developing POWER med ball throws are extremely beneficial.
Training triple extension through explosive movements is what will make an athlete more athletic, developing their rate of force.
– Box Gauntlet
The box gauntlet is all about teaching the athlete proper jumping and landing mechanics. Before an athlete starts plyometrics, it is essential they understand how to LAND AND ABSORB FORCE.