Independent Study Review

Overall, my independent study really cemented my teaching skills, and also improved my knowledge of, and ability to teach the Olympic lifts. It also provided me with other ideas for beneficial sport-specific workouts that a football team can use. I learned WHY these are beneficial, and also learned how to warm up an athlete properly before a weight-lifting workout. I learned the relationship between flexibility and strength. I also enjoyed improving my ability to relate to school-age athletes and help them balance giving all out effort while still having fun and avoiding burnout.

Speed Ladders

After the workout in the weight room, we take the kids out to the track for some speed ladders and agility drills. The athletes run 10m, 20m, 40m, 80m, and 100m at full speed in order to practice their running on the field. In addition, we focus on their speed and explosion out of the start, which is improved by the Olympic Lifts. Being fast out of the start is important in a game on offense OR defense. On offense, a fast start can allow the offensive line to start blocking right at the snap. On defense, a fast start can allow for a blitz, or allow the defensive line to get past the other team and put pressure on the quarterback. Maintaining their speed is also important, because running backs and receivers can be expected to run all lengths of routes, and defenders have to be able to stick with the other team's receivers and knock the ball away.

Teaching Methods, and Other Weight Room Activities

The way I taught the Olympic Lifts was to start with the Burgener Warmup, which was designed by Coach Mike Burgener to teach the progression of a snatch.

Down and up (3 reps)
Elbows high and outside (3 reps)
Muscle snatch (3 reps)
Snatch land (3 reps)
Snatch drop (3 reps)
Hang power snatch (3 reps)

Following that, I had all the athletes take a bar with no weight on it and practice some lightweight clean and jerks or snatches (whatever the workout calls for that day). That way they can focus on proper technique, and not weight, and I can focus on making corrections early, before they get the weight on the bar. If we are doing a clean and jerk, I discourage new learners from going to a split jerk right away, since that requires more dexterity than a regular power jerk. Usually, people will use a split jerk because it allows them to lift more weight, but since the athletes at this point are not worried about the amount of weight anyway, a power jerk is more beneficial. The more experienced lifters (some of the football players are also on the Olympic Lifting team) are allowed to split jerk.

Other activities we do in the weight room include standing high pulls with a 30 or 40 pound plate, upright rows, pullups, and bench press. Coach Stockel believes keeping things varied with the athletes allows them to avoid getting burned out, and also keeps them well-rounded.

Teaching the Olympic Lifts

The picture to the left is an example of the workout sheet that each athlete is given each week. It has their workouts and specific weight ranges for each day at practice, and they spend time cycling through various stations, like Olympic Lifting, Agility, Speed Drills, Balance Drills, Basic Weights, etc. I found this to be a very efficient way of determining who needs to do what, instead of wasting practice time assigning how much weight each individual athlete needs to do each day. It also allows athletes to see their progress, and individualize the workouts based on each athlete's skill level and strength.

My main job at practice was to stay in the weight room all morning (which, by the way, was hotter than Hades), and teach the Clean and Jerk and the Snatch to small groups of football players as they cycled through. The skill levels of the athletes ranged from "never saw a bar in my life and don't have a clue what you are talking about" to the slightly more proficient "I am an upperclassman and have done this two or three times, but mainly just mess around," and finally to the epitome of frustration "freshman whose middle school coach taught him completely wrong technique and is also not open to learning the correct methods".

Needless to say, there were a few long mornings, and shocked looks when the nice-looking quiet girl coach had a "come to Jesus" talk with the team. :)

Anyways, like I was saying, my job was to teach the Clean and Jerk and Snatch. The most common errors that occur when kids start to learn these moves are the following:

Problems with the Snatch:
-Athlete does not fully open their hips in the second pull, therefore lacks the explosion needed to get the bar overhead.
-Athlete fails to shrug explosively in the second pull, and has the same problem, or the bar gets overhead, but is too far in front of them, so they can't lock it out.
-Athlete does not have "active shoulders" when they catch the bar overhead, so they fail to lock it out, and can't complete the lift.
-Athlete rounds his/her back when pulling the bar off the ground during the second pull, and can injure his/her back this way. (Common when the athlete is trying to do more weight than they are capable of)

Problems with the Clean and Jerk:
-Same general technique problems as the snatch in the first and second pulls.
-Athlete fails to catch the bar in the clean with his/her elbows up, therefore dropping the bar in front of them.
-Athlete fails to keep their body weight on their heels, therefore, not maintaining enough balance to complete the lift.
-Athlete fails to lock the weight out overhead with their arms behind their ears, therefore the bar is too far in front of their center of balance to complete the lift.
-Athlete fails to re-bend their knees when locking out the weight, and lacks the strength to press the weight, so they can't complete the lift.

Daily Warm-Up

Everyday at practice, we spent about 20 minutes warming the athletes up before workouts in the weight room. The drills we did were designed specifically to engage the muscles and joints that the athletes would be using during the workout. The major ones included the hip joints, major leg and arm muscles, the shoulder girdle, and knee and ankle joints. These are areas of the body that are used during the explosive lifts we do in the weight room, and also areas that are commonly injured when lifting weights. By taking the time to warm the athletes up using dynamic stretching routines, we enable them to lift heavier weight, and do it safely. Since flexibility is directly related to muscular strength and endurance, we are setting the athletes up for success when they get into the weight room. That way, we can make the most of the limited time we have with them each day.

Internship Overview

This summer, I spent 3 hours a week for 4 weeks at Flowery Branch High School as part of an independent study/secondary internship. I had the opportunity to assist Coach CJ Stockel in the weight room with the Varsity Football and Olympic Lifting teams. I started a blog so I could share my experiences, and what I learned during my time at FBHS.