Why you should hill train ALL season (video)
Hills are one of the most effective means of training all elements of speed, conditioning, technique…
You get the idea.
And it’s not *just* for offseason training, especially when you’re working with high school aged football players (and younger).
With the season here, you don’t have a lot of time to commit to conditioning. So you’ll want to focus on drills/exercises/workouts that give you the most bang for your buck.
Remember, there is no ceiling in terms of gaining speed, strength and power.
Your developmental athletes have such a low training age (training experience) that ‘inseason’ is no time to attempt to ‘maintain’ strength levels or speed gains.
The incline helps develop strength and power, as well as teach athletes to fire the right muscles in the right order so they get maximum acceleration.
Otherwise, they’ll *feel* that they aren’t going anywhere.
Because running up a hill is more difficult than running on a flat surface, you can get more specific conditioning, strength/power, etc. out of one drill.
So you can spend less time away from offense, defense and special teams, but still ensure your players can go all out at the end of the game.
Also, keep in mind: It’s fun.
Players get bored doing the same old gassers and shuttle runs. So they don’t go as hard. They’re not trying to ‘half ass’. They can’t help it.
But something new, different and challenging always gets the competitive juices flowing.
So check out this video of a couple of Coach Carlisle’s favorite hill drills you can use in your next practice, depending on what you’re trying to get out of it.
Total Football Training with Duane Carlisle
Sample workout:
Back pedal
For pure speed:
4 – 7 x 20-30y w/3′ rest between each run
For speed endurance (the ability to execute quickly and efficiently while tired):
4 – 7 x 20-30y w/walk back recovery
Be sure to cue the things discussed in the video, regardless of how you use these drills.
Walking Lunge
For strength & power:
3 – 5 x 20-30y w/3-4′ rest between each ‘run’
For strength endurance (the ability to execute efficiently & explosively while tired)
3 – 5 x 20-30y w/1-2′ rest between each ‘run’
Use these drills to develop the specific skills you want your players to learn and you will have better football players.
To your success,
Latif Thomas
http://www.TotalFootballTraining.com
August 13th, 2010 at 2:26 pm
Latif,
I am a strength and conditioning coach. I currently am training field hockey girls at the college level. My question for you is on teaching sprinting technique. They run with sticks in their hand obviously and i was wondering if they should be doing all speed drills with or without their stick, also when they run they are having a hard time getting into a good lean angle without bendig at the waist. Do you think this is a strength issue with their lower posterior chain or more of a core issue? Feedback would be much appreciated.
August 18th, 2010 at 2:38 pm
josh: I would do both. Foundationally, teach them how to sprint properly. Especially early in the training cycle. But, of course, they need to know how to run with the stick in hand. So I’d say 3:1 with stick:without stick.
Yes, I do think that their inability to get into a good lean position is likely a pure physical strength primarily (posterior chain, etc.) and a core issue secondarily. Both must be addressed.