Different Opinions

I was just wondering what other strength and conditioning coaches do in terms of combining different forms of training and periodization/cycling. We utilize a variety of methodologies that center on our core concepts in the weight room. We want powerful, agile, and flexible athletes. This has been an easy seller to coaches of other sports at our school because who doesn’t want an athlete that can generate as much force in as little time as possible, change direction and decelerate quickly, and change positions fast? We incorporate strongman, powerlifting, o-lifts, and bodybuilding into every cycle (depending on the sport season we will alter the emphasis on one or the other). We have recently been incorporating some CrossFit-style workouts to aid in the metabolic aspect of training. We have also really started to emphasize deceleration in our speed work because who cares if you run a 4.3 forty if you can’t stop quickly and then achieve top speed soon thereafter. We train linear speed on our bench/clean days and lateral speed/agility on our squat days. Sorry for the long into, here are a few questions I’d like to hear the answers to from guys who know a lot more about S & C than I do:
1) How do you mix up your different styles of training (i.e. strongman, powerlifting, o-lifting)?
2) How do you go about getting periodization where you want it (sets, reps, %s)?
3) Finally, how do you get your speed/agility/plyo work to fit into what you’re doing in the weight room for that particular day/week/cycle?
Plyos are the biggest thing I’m struggling with right now. I know plyos take a toll on motor units and the entire muscle as a whole so I always feel like I’m either under-training them or overtraining them and not properly incorporating this into what we’re doing in the weight room.
Any and all thoughts (positive and negative) on all of this are greatly appreciated. I know I threw a lot out there but when I start thinking about this stuff I just go into an obsessive tangent… which I hope is a good thing!

It depends on a lot of things. If Im dealing with rank beginners, the focus is on technique and simple linear progression since there is no need for anything fancy. Additionally, it depends on the sport so you have to work around the demands of the season and evaluate hoe much off season time you have.

Rarely do I encounter someone who is so elite that they need something complex like the Charlie Francis system.

In case you have not already figured this out, I am not very smart. As far as what to do and when, I can tell you right now that I am doing way too much. I am about to solve that problem. Next thing, I dont know much, but I do know this, IF I undertrain these kids, they still get stronger, if I overtrain them, they dont. Obviously we all want what is optimal, but if I am ever uncertain, I err on the side of caution. I realize this was probably not the least bit helpful for you, but I will end on this thought, I am driving myself crazy trying to figure out how and when to do a million things in the weight room. I am tired of it, I am about to get back to basics, bench, squat and dead lift. When we master that, we will move on.

Coach, that's a great point. I do the exact same thing. When I go to plan out the next phase of our workout I drive myself nuts trying to figure out what supplemental and aux lifts go best with our core lift for that day and when they best fit into the time frame I'm working with. Then I start the madness all over again when I start implementing what plyos and lateral and linear speed work I want to do. That's not to mention the inner battle I constantly go through when it comes to sets, reps, and %s.

I feel your pain coach. I read something on Elite or somewhere that really hit home with me. It basically said the best program out there is one that you are not currently using. So, I am going to try and just do what I know, and hopefully know what I am doing. And I will try to pick up more great ideas at this years clinic May 16th. What else can you do?

I'm sure you, like me, remember the "good ol' days" when all you knew about strength and conditioning was to climb under as much weight as possible as often as possible, hit a few aux lifts, then go run gassers in the hottest part of the day because the tremendous heat made you feel you were just getting that much better...

If you go back to the article I wrote this summer about the different programs, you see common themes in all successful programs. My feeling is that while we love to sit and debate the intricacies of our different programs, as long as we are squatting at least to parallel, pulling something heavy and explosive, and pushing something, and doing so with enough intensity to trigger gains and at the same time not so much that we overtrain them, then that is what really matters. There have been too many people who have been successful with too many different programs for there not to be common themes that have to run through all programs.