During the combine season, I meet and talk to many athletes who tell me their stories of training during the off-season to make it into the National Football League, Arena Football League, or go play up in Canada. I notice that many football players make the same mistake. It’s a mistake that I was taught and made as well. Most football coaches dwell on strength training only with free weights.
If you are an athlete, notice that in football, you never, ever simulate the motion of a flat bench press or squat while on the field. In most situations, football requires quick bursts of speed, power, and quickness altogether at one given moment. Depending upon your position, you may need this power or you may not. I recommend to the players that I work with at camps to train position specific when going to the gym. Also, find exercises that simulate and compliment your position.
I recommend not weight training 6 days per week during the off-season. Ply-ometrics should be used to train and other training mechanisms and thought processes need to be utilized by those such as Coach Marv Marinovich in Southern California. Another hyper important thing is to employ stretching your long muscles and hold the stretch for 60 seconds into each stretch. Many high school and college coaches have athletes hold stretches for a ten second count and this is just not enough to stretch highly used and stressed out muscle fibers. You should stretch your hamstrings and quadriceps to the point of it damn near hurting you to keep the muscle conditioned and flexible. The tighter the muscle, the less you’re able to move freely on the field.
