By Cole Hergott MKin, CSCS*D, RSCC, CPSS, CSCP, BCAK, NSCA-CPT, FM-2, Pn1
As strength & conditioning coaches, most of us love to be in the weight room, love to throw around some big weight, and love to train ourselves. One thing that often gets missed is that many times our athletes do not share the same feelings toward training that we do. In the school setting, whether high school or college, student-athletes don’t go to school in order to lift weights. They go to school to get an education and hopefully play sports as enjoyable extracurricular activity. And with respect to training/lifting, they may see this as the sports “homework” they need to complete.
We all know that the most important ingredients for a successful training plan are consistency and effort. So how do we as S&C coaches set up our training to maximize consistency and effort and get the most out of our athletes?
Help them enjoy it.
Now, I am not talking about playing games the whole session or letting them do whatever they want (you are a COACH after all). I am talking about making sure that you have aspects of your training environment set up so that it helps athletes put forth their best effort, even when they might not want to.
Here are four ways to accomplish this.
Make Warm-ups “Fun”
If you are going to make “a game” out of any part of your training session, the warm-up is the best time to do it. What better way to get kids excited about training than to get them smiling and laughing in warm-up?
I often keep to a pretty simple template with my warm-ups (similar to a RAMP protocol), but I do like to spice things up at the end with some fun competitions or games. Some of the favorites for us are Basketball Free throw races (first team to make 10 wins), relays, or some form of dodgeball. While I am not a huge advocate for stealing exercises off of social media, I think it can be a great forum to learn fun warm-up games and partner challenges that can get your athletes physically warm, mentally engaged, and emotionally excited to take on the challenge of the session.
Build In Competition
We use the TrainHeroic training software at Trinity Western University. One of the best aspects of the app/software is the “Leaderboard” setting. I can make any exercise a “leaderboard” so athletes can enter their best weight or velocity and can see where they stack up against their teammates. Yes, in a team session we often see who is lifting what, but this becomes an absolute game-changer during the summer months when athletes scatter and may work out individually and can’t keep track of each other’s progress. Walking into your squat session and seeing that one of your teammates hit a PR early that day can be a great motivator and inspire you to put your best foot forward (especially if you don’t want to be last on the list!).
Image 1: Leaderboard on TrainHeroic (Trap-Bar Jump Velocity at 100 lbs)
Involve Everyone
As a way to build culture in our varsity weight room, I have created several programs where the student-athletes are involved with each other, regardless of sport or gender. A few examples of these are:
- Weekly Poll question on the whiteboard that everyone votes on (i.,“Which flavor of ice Cream is best?”)
- Weekly Challenges where you compete within your team as well as against other teams to see who is the best at the task (for example,“How many times can you bounce a tennis ball up using a dowel/stick”). Winners get a prize too!
- PR Mirror. This is anew one for us, but the concept is that every time one of our athletes hits a PR (as shown through TrainHeroic), they put a tick under their team’s box on one of our mirrors. At the end of the month, the team with the highest Magic Number (Most “PRs/Session/Athlete”) is the winner (again, more prizes. Plus, a Social Media shout-out–the real prize!)
Image 2: PR Mirror
Gamify Training
It can sometimes be tricky–and I am not saying that everything we do in the weight room is gimmicky and “fun”–but using tools like the leaderboard help to break up the monotony of training. If you have Velocity-Based Training (VBT) units, this can also be a great tool for driving intent and changing up training by giving athletes a different goal to shoot for rather than just weight on the bar. It changes the emphasis of the lift (speed vs weight) and can invigorate high school and college athletes who often play video games in their free time. As a result, they are used to hitting high scores and having set tasks to achieve. Therefore, they usually respond well to requests like “How fast can you lift 135 lbs in the squat,” or “How much weight can you lift at 0.75 m/s.” This can create a challenge that is not only fun for them, but also serves to drive higher intent–helping them achieve the results you want and they need!
Conclusion
There are so many ways to make training fun and spice things up. I have listed just a few that I have used with lots of success. At the end of the day, you need to do what works for the group of student-athletes you have standing in front of you. Like I mentioned before, not every one of your students is going to be as jacked up about training as you are. And even for those who do enjoy it, throwing in some fun tools or tricks now and then can drive up the effort and joy of training that much more (plus, it makes coaching more fun). It’s a win-win!
Enjoy the process, coach!
Peace. Gains.
Cole Hergott is the Head Strength & Conditioning Coach at Trinity Western University in Langley, BC, Canada. He has a Master’s degree in Coaching Science as well as numerous certifications. He is passionate about enhancing physical performance and helping his athletes become the best versions of themselves in all areas of life.
