My Thoughts Monday #8: Results of The “First Phase”

Seven or so weeks ago I started this talking about how this was all driven off of a discussion I had with the head coach for a specific team. That we needed to make sure, as strength coaches, that we were using the same language as our head coach, and that we had the same goals and direction of the training program. I shared with you the plan, what we were looking to evaluate and how we would evaluate the athlete’s, and the training plans in general. Now, I’d like to share with you the results. These are, in no way shape or form, anything other than our initial improvements that will now drive the direction of our preparation going forward. Let’s start out with just a general overview of what we saw from these student athletes:

As you can see above they did pretty well. Just quick math shows that on average the team improved roughly 23 seconds on average. That, to me, is pretty impressive. The other number I was impressed with was that there are now 9 of the 17 athletes able to complete the testing (we have 2 out due to injury) have run a sub 6 minute mile and only one person who has not run a sub seven. Another thing I thought was cool was this:

When you look at the tests through out the week you will find very few that had 10 seconds or more discrepancy in the three trials. So what I take from that is that these times were (for this week at least) reliable, and they have made these improvements.

It goes without saying, I would hope, that the only thing that directly influenced the improvements in these evaluations is the effort level of the student athletes. Some had less room for improvement, and some had more, but they all got better. They all pushed each other, they all showed up on days where they felt like crap, they all showed up and ran hard during mid terms or when they had papers due. It didn’t matter. Were there some days that were better than others? Of course there were, and in fact there were some days I told them flat you “you lost because you stunk,” but what this group didn’t do was quit. They kept showing up, they kept pushing each other, and they kept battling. They won this portion. I hope they feel the sense of accomplishment that they should because they’ve earned these results.

Hopefully someone looks at the past 7 weeks and finds something that helps, or something they hate, and it can start a conversation. I’d love some feedback on what you like, or what we could have done better for these student athletes in order to find better improvements. Next week we will talk about another issue this squad has had, and then get into what our training is going to look like going forward. Thanks for reading.

Read Full Article Here: My Thoughts Monday #8: Results of The “First Phase”