S B Coaches College - Tip of the Month September 2005




		S B Coaches College Tip of the Month September 2005

For this tip of the month, we decided to inform our readers a little more about one of our members, other than reading their bio. Robb Rogers is an experienced and unique strength coach. He has coached athletes of all levels and ages and is especially known for his work with football. Robb is also a renowned speaker, and writer. If you haven’t heard him speak, we highly recommend that you do. It will not only be informative, but quite entertaining. In case many of you didn’t know Robb Rogers, we decided to have a simple question and answer session about some of the things that makes Robb a unique strength coach and his approach to the profession.

Relative Intensity – What is it?

Relative intensity is a term I use to compare workouts and rep schemes. If someone is doing 5 x 5 @ 82% on Monday and 4 x 10 @ 70% on Thursday in a 4 day split, what is the difference? If you accept that 10 @ 73 is the same as 8 @ 79 is the same as 6 @ 85 is the same as 4 @ 91 is the same as 2 @ 97 which is the same as 1 @ 100% load. If you also accept that 1 rep = 3% and 3% = 1 rep, then relative intensity can be used to compare the workouts. 5 @ 82% has a relative intensity of 97%. 10 @ 70% has a relative intensity of 97%. Since the volume on Monday is 25 reps and the volume on Thursday is 40 reps, I would say the backside workout on Thursday is the more difficult training session. Check out an article on Relative Intensity here.

Testing – What & how often.

We test a lot. We bench test about 6 – 8 times throughout the year, both 1 rep max as well as 225 for reps. Power clean and hang clean about 4 – 6 times throughout the year.

We vertical jump, bodyweight, body fat, 10, 20 and 40-yard dash, 5 – 10 – 5, and L drill many times in the course of the year. We safety squat max and since it is so heavy, we only do it one time each year, in the spring. We do not use a “Test Day” in our program. We test each exercise or drill as it peaks in our training cycles. This creates more testing sessions and more excitement in the off – season. We condition test prior to the start of each semester with the 110 test. We also test the Gambetta leg circuit (20 squats, 20 alternate lunges, 20 alternate power step – ups, 10 squat jumps in 90 seconds with 2:30 second recovery) prior to each semester.

Injury Prevention Exercises – What and when.

We do manual neck for football. For football this is critical. When I coached at Baylor University, we had a linebacker, Dean Jackson play ¾ of a season with a 5^th cervical vertebrae fracture. It is a miracle he is alive and walking. I would like to think that all the manual neck we did helped him in that miracle. For all our athletes we do a lot of single leg multi – plane, multi – joint, proprioceptive/balance exercises. We also do some stability exercises for our shoulders. Stability ball drills for our core strength and trunk stability are a staple of our training program. Our push reps generally equal our pull reps so our shoulder complex does not become overly developed pressing. We constantly stress the importance of maintaining our fitness. The more physically fit an athlete is the less prone that athlete is to injury. I pay close attention to our sequence and order of prescription in our training sessions. This combined with proper warm – up and build – up to the day’s activities does a lot to prevent injuries.

In – season Workouts vs. Off – season workouts – How do they differ?

Our off – season and in – season training differ mainly in volume. Our intensity remains relatively high. Whether it is intensity as measured by load, speed or time under tension our workouts will look similar. Our template of injury prevention warm – up, dumbbell complexes, platform work, giant sets, supplement exercises and recovery drills is pretty uniform week to week. The exercises, modalities, speeds, loads and volumes will constantly change. Where they differ is, in – season training will be much lower in volume, which in turn lowers the intensity. We also lower the stimulus in the weight room during the season. We do not play much hard driving, up-tempo music on the stereo and we train in a more businesslike manner. We save our energy and adrenaline for practice and game day.

How do we motivate our athletes to train year round?

First of all we make the weight room a fun place to be. We laugh, tease, challenge and compete with each other every day to combat the monotony of training. We use a lot of positive reinforcement. We try to never judge or put down another athlete. We only try to motivate and lift each other up. Testing is just about every other week, so there is always something to point toward. Our discipline policy is set, so when an athlete has an unexcused absence, he knows his punishment, does it and we move on. Our head football coach Andy McCollum (MTSU) was very supportive so we had no compliance problems. (Robb is no longer associated with MTSU)

Advice to a high school strength coach.

Learn the science, the x’s and o’s of speed, strength and conditioning. Time will teach the wisdom of how to apply the science. This wisdom will change the science of the discipline to an art form as it is applied in the culture of your program. Remember, this is a people business and the more we invest in our business, the greater the returns.

If you have any specific questions for Robb, please send them to sbcoache@sbcoachescollege.com and we will forward them Robb’s way.