Alternatives to traditional conditioning

divide them up into even teams and have them do a lap around the field Indian Run style, but the change up is to have the group carry a telephone pole over their heads.

Egg toss relay, same basic idea but they have to throw an egg out to the next man. The guy from the back sprints out as far as he is willing to risk. If they break the egg, they start over. Not as much conditioning as teamwork drill.

Fireman's Carry. Each group has to partner up and keep the same partner for the entire time. Carry the width of the field. When they get to the other side the partners switch. The trick is when they get to the other sideline, they can't switch until EVERYBODY is across the field. If I am first, I hold onto my partner until the last pair cross the line. Then they switch and go back. Group only moves as fast as the slowest and they have to think about who is going to pair up. Do for a set period of time, the most laps by a group wins.

Shopping cart relay. If you can cut off the wheels and weld runners on the bottom, they are a great work out. Have each group get into threes, 2 push and 1 in the cart. When they get to the other end of the field, the 1 in the cart brings it back empty. and the next goes. Have to get everyone across the field. Variation: if you have enough carts, do it like the fireman's carry for a timed period and whichever team gets the most laps wins.

Prowlers relays are tough. If you haven't invested in on, then you are spending too much time and effort to punish kids. 200 yards on the prowler will make most kids be 1 time offenders. Use this as a relay, each member going 10-20 yards, then the next goes. If you don't have a prowler, use 45 pound plates and push that they along the ground, use a length of 2x4 to push, use an old tire: basically a bear crawl, but kids can't cheat it when they have to slide something across the ground.

Combat drills are great too. They go quick, but are intense. A chance to get a lot of reps.
-Sumo- either paint circles on the ground or go whole group and use the end zone if the groups are huge, or go between cones. If in a large group the most out of the circle/area wins that round.
-Tugs- get some old tires and have the groups play match up. Use cones about 20 yards apart. Which ever gets the most tires past their end line wins the round. Each round will last 10-30 seconds. Go as many rounds as you want, best of 5/7/9 to declare winner.
-Tug-o-war

Ultimate football... same as frisbee but the fat guys get to run with the ball! gets funny real fast.

not sure where you are from but in wisconsin sand bags. If you are not from where is snows you might not knwo this. if you go to like home depot. you can get 50 to 70 lb bags of sand. in the midwest we put them in the back of our cars and trucks to gain traction in the winter months.

well have each kid get a bag. they are like two bucks, duct tape the bag from head to toe. you can do alsorts of great conditioning ideas with sand bags.

As with most good ideas, I stole this from a local fitness group lead by a former Navy Seal. The cool thing about his approach is it really pushes you while focusing on working as a team. Here's now it works:

Break them up into squads. Each squad elects a captain. The captain goes to a coach who gives them a set of commands which they must complete as a team. For example:

"Break up into squads of 8 and send me a captain, you have 45 seconds, Go!"

When the captains come up give them a variety of stuff to do:

"Each team must do the following:
- Bear crawl relay 2 lines (10 yards) and back
- 120 pushups by the team (the fat kid might do 10, the fit kid might do 30, it's the team total that counts)
- 120 crunches
- Wheel barrel 20 yards, switch and come back
- Piggyback carry 4 lines, switch and come back
- 100 squat jumps
- Suicide relay
- 80 burpees
- 30 yard sprint and back relay"

Give the commands clearly and quickly, ask if there are questions and send them back to their teams. Here's the hard part: you have to remember what you told them, so best to write it down before hand but you can hit a number of areas of conditioning with a well structured set.

If they start doing something out of order or incorrectly, correct them. The thing they'll usually screw up first is to divide the number of pushups/whatever by the number of guys in the squad, expecting each one to do the same amount. Wait until they're all watching the poor kid who is about to fall out while they're taking it easy and ask them "Are you a team or are you individuals?" They'll look at you funny then say "We never said each kid has to do the number divided by the team size, it's a team effort" and let them figure out the point, which is to operate as a team where the guy who can carry a larger load does while everyone else strives to do the most they can.

It's time efficient because it fosters teamwork while conditioning. It teaches how to listen to directives, thing and focus on the task at hand, lead the squad, operate as a team, etc. Very effective for both conditioning and team building.

we have a week-long "iron man" competition. every day has different events and the kids compete against their own class and position. (line/skill) the events are pushups(most you can do without stopping), crunches (same), jumprope(who can go the longest without stopping), tire sumo(two kids grabbing opp sides of an old tire, trying to pull the other one past a line on the floor), and one on one full court basketball(play for two minutes straight... must be running up/down floor.most pts scored wins). each event has a point system(1st place 3 pts, 2nd place 1 pt) at the end of tge week the point leaders for each grade/position are given a t-shirt. then the winners compete in a one-day combine (all events in one day) and the overall winner is crowned "ironman" and we give him a prize (steak dinner, etc)
kids love keeping track og each others points and really bust their tails because they are only competing on their owsn level..... you dont have a senior wr playing full court vs a soph ot. at the end of the week, the kids are really exhausted too. some of our kids did over 100 pushups consecutively one day, then came back and did the same with crunches the next, followed by 2 or 3 full court games of one on one.... really gets them going, ya know?

Candlestick Tag - the kids thing they are having fun when in reality they are working harder than wind sprints or any other traditional condititioning methods