Football Strength Training
Being part of a collision sport, football players clearly need to build muscle mass to protect themselves from the repeated trauma of running into people at full speed over and over during the course of games and practices.
With that in mind, a common mistake made by many in this sport is to over-focus on getting as big as possible while neglecting its potential negative impact on speed development. The bigger you are, the harder it is to play fast.
I am not going to sugarcoat this by saying it is easy to get bigger, stronger, and faster all at once. It is probably the hardest set of goals to achieve altogether, but with a smart training
The key here is to split up your goals into smaller parts of your off-season, with the right combination of set and rep schemes. Closely linked to this is proper nutrition, because you’ll need to eat enough to get bigger, but you cannot pack on the unwanted extra weight that will slow you down.
Workouts for football often overlook drills emphasizing balance flexibility, and athleticism, but you shouldn’t make this mistake. Although this is particularly true for skill positions, linemen can also benefit by increasing their leverage and protecting themselves from injury.
Football Speed & Agility Training
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For those on both sides of the ball playing in open space (backs, receivers, linebackers, etc), they need to maximize literally every aspect of movement training. Backpedaling, shuffling, crossover runs, cutting, sprinting
For linemen, multi-directional first-step quickness is critical. Although they may ultimately be assessed at combines with 40-yard dash times, game success is far less dependent on sprint speed for these players. Acceleration and good footwork in a small space are your keys. This includes lateral movement, an often overlooked aspect of playing well on the line. Quick feet can be greatly enhanced with a simple tool like a jump rope, along with more advanced agility and footwork training.
Conditioning For Football
Football can be a grueling sport from a conditioning standpoint. It is not uncommon to see
Since each play lasts about 5-10 seconds, work intervals for football conditioning should be about the same. This means sprints of 10-100
Rest periods are usually about 30-45 seconds between plays, but in today’s
For most
Injury Prevention for Football
There are so many potential areas to cover here that it would be impossible to go into detail on all of them, so what follows is a review of the most critical areas for injury prevention.
Neck and head injuries are probably the scariest
The shoulder girdle takes on the brunt of most
Knee injuries are also common in football. Surprisingly, the best way to protect the knees
Sometimes a loss of flexibility through poor weight training technique can increase your chance to get hurt. For those who limit their range of motion on key lifts in order to use more weight, these athletes should consider the impact of this strategy on movement skills, and how it can turn you into a player who plays ‘stiff’ on the field as the cumulative effect of your training takes hold over time.
Youth Football Training Considerations
Many outstanding college and professional football players spent their younger years playing other sports. Football is a sport for many athletes is hard to play for more than 10 years, so starting young is not necessarily as valuable as it may be in many other sports.
Having said that, younger football players would do very well for themselves by incorporating as much movement, balance, and coordination-based activities as they possibly can.
A foundation of bodyweight strength would also be of great benefit, as this would begin to protect them from future injuries. Strength is the foundation of speed, power, and explosion, key traits for future success in football.
Young players should also incorporate target practice, catching, and other fundamental skills into game-based activities. Sports vision development and balance can be combined with them to really build athleticism at an early age.
Football Training at Power Source
Central Massachusetts and Southern New Hampshire football players can train with us in any of our elite programs. We’ll tailor your training specifically to target your greatest areas of strength and power needs, as well as help protect you from any potential injury risks, in our Group Personal Training Program.
Our Speed & Agility Classes are designed to enhance the sprint and agility technique through expert coaching, video analysis, sprint treadmills, and a handful of other tools.
At certain times of