The weight room is the most influential room in a school.
It’s not a place to hang out — it’s a classroom.
A place where habits are built, standards are set, and character is developed.
“If you’re a high school athlete you better be lifting year round. You’re competing with transfer portal athletes who train 48 weeks a year. You’re a baseball player who lifts for 3 months in the off season then says “I have travel ball” or “I’m not lifting in season” you are already behind. Lifting is the X factor for baseball players”
@ZachDechant TCU @IAStrengthCoach
This was so perfect to start the day!! 🧘🏼♀️ Every word is exactly how I feel about my life NOW. Thank you so much 🧎➡️
The love is deep within the chaous of life. You just have to get to the other side to see it all happened how it was suppose to happen when it was supposed to
What makes a great football team?
1. Talented players.
2. Competing without fear of losing.
3. Willingness to speak and hear the truth.
4. Accepting responsibility for more than yourself.
5. Aligning self-interest with team-interest.
I think the #1 issue I see with alot of the “you most condition your athletes” time of the year on X (at the high school level) is the fact it seems coaches assume if they are not doing some sort of formal conditioning program that the kids are not getting it.
Also…99% of people are not using a heart rate based test to know…so they are just throwing a dart at a board and guessing levels anyway.
I’m not anti conditioning in any way. But I got news for you (based on heart rate max drop testing done with multiple sports over three years)….most of what you are trying to do right now is probably pointless.
If your athletes plays multiple sports, train all summer, attend 7-7, play AAU games etc etc. You are 100% doing those post practice “conditioning” drills to make you as a coach feel better not necessarily helping all the athletes.
Do what you think you gotta do…none of my business because every situation it different. Most of what you will mistake for “out of shape” is really dehydrated fatigue….🤷♂️
Complaining about kids playing AAU and Club sports year round then saying those same athletes will somehow be in better shape if you just do some more 50-70% if maxV running makes ZERO logical sense.
The only way to avoid criticism is to be unseen, unheard, and unknown. You have to decide whether you want to produce excellence or avoid criticism. Because you can't do both.
Two different experiences of failure:
1. Those who give everything and come up short.
2. Those who never try their best for fear of failure.
Only one is a loser.
I tell so many young athletes that walk thru XPEs doors.
"Are you the leader of your school workouts?"
If not, why are you here?
Impress your coaches 1st and foremost. Then work extra if you have time.
You can’t pay someone to work hard for you.
I see too many athletes going to private lessons 4x a week thinking it’s going to make them elite.
But at the end of the day it doesn’t payoff because they still have average work ethic.
How you do the work is still the key.
Sport-specific considerations are great - but only when athletes have a foundation of training experience. When working with kids, you can throw your advanced strategies out the window and stick with the basics. Squat-hinge-lunge-push-pull is pretty universal for all sports.
Organizations screw up their culture by trying to make everyone feel good. It is not culture’s job to babysit people’s feelings. Culture’s job is to demand and drive specific behavior standards required to execute a strategy and produce desired results.
@Scholars_Stage What people mostly don’t understand or appreciate is that you either “create” energy or you “catch” it.
Energy needs a source. If it is not coming from within you, then you depend on it coming from outside you.
Create your own energy = The most important skill in the world.