July/August 2020 - 10

POWERLINE stre ng th and conditioning
what!
NO DISTANCE RUNNING?
By Boyd Epley, NSCA Founder
This summer is different because of the coronavirus, so
I'm offering some advice to football strength coaches as
they resume activities.
Most athletes have had a long layoff from structured,
organized training. As schools are allowed to return to
practice, coaches will be anxious to get athletes back into
shape. High school, college, and even pro players need
to be smart and not overtrain trying to make up for those
missed workouts. Unfortunately, a large number of football
coaches believe doing distance running prepares athletes
in power sports to sustain energy levels through the end of
a football game. Building an aerobic base contributes little
to the improvement of a football player's performance.
This may seem controversial and hard to believe, but
it is based on how the body works and how the body gets
energy to perform work.
Some coaches understand distance running is not
the correct energy system for power sports like football,
basketball, and baseball, but they do it for mental
toughness and that is my concern. Athletes will be at
various stages of physical condition. Some will report in
great shape while others will not have been able to train
much. I'm concerned that football coaches will force their
strength coach to make their players do distance running.
The sport of football is not a long continuous activity.
Each play involves an effort of 100% intensity for roughly
five seconds. Between each play there is an average of
50 seconds of rest which includes timeouts and penalties.
Football is not an endurance sport. The demand for
ATP (energy) is high during a football play, and as the
play ends, the ATP tank is nearly drained. Proper rest
between plays allows the energy tank to refill to almost
maximum capacity. This rest between plays allows
maximum intensity for fast-twitch fibers on the next play.
The players should be almost as powerful on the last play
of the game as the first play of the game. That's the part
that some coaches fail to realize. The refilling of the ATP
energy tank continues to happen in the fourth quarter if
you have trained properly.
Training aerobically is not the answer for football.
It is important to know your athletes on an individual
basis to find out what they have been doing or not doing
then create a program that will cater to each individual's
needs. Every strength and conditioning program should
begin with the testing and evaluation of each participant
before any program is implemented. By learning an
athlete's strengths and weaknesses it is much easier
10 JULY/AUGUST 2020
to direct their training and achieve maximum results.
Re-testing will determine if the program has effectively
achieved your goals.
Test the vertical or horizontal jump, 10-yard dash
and pro agility run (electronically). Also test the squat
and hang clean. Retest again just before the start of the
season to measure how much progress they have made in
your program. This will be important to show your coach
that your program has helped the team get bigger, faster,
more agile, more powerful and stronger.
Let me relate what I've learned which should help
convince you to put a plan into action as soon as you get
a green light to resume training. One of the factors in
becoming Nebraska's first strength coach was having
worked with injured players who could not run. I saw
tremendous gains in their strength and lean body mass
by lifting only. When they went back to practice they
were much faster and stronger than they had been which
caught the eye of the coaches.
One of my former strength coaches was training
high school-age athletes. He had no indoor field house
or indoor area to run which concerned him. He felt his
athletes would not be in shape if they couldn't run. I saw
this situation as an opportunity for us to measure the
results of a program that incorporated little or no running
and emphasized recovery time.
July/August 2020

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