Up/downs

We do many varations of burpees in our off season conditioning program. Standard burpees, burpee broad jumps, burpee box jumps...the list goes on and on.

Then we'll do a team pursuit drill at least once a week where my guys have to drop and do a full burpee before getting up and getting into their proper pursuit angle.

We also do burpees for every point point that we give up as soon as our games are finished.

We have them do it during conditioning. Have them lie on their stomachs and go from the ground. We also put them on the backs and have them get up and go (not really up/down but similar to what you want). In the off-season, if they are late for practice or not properly dressed it is 50 up/downs. Burpies are up/downs except you kick your feet out and back to a push up position and then gather your feet back and stand up. That's a burpie, you could also throw in a push up and make it a 6 count exercise.

In the past I've always thought push ups are a good way to focus the teen age mind, this year I used 6 count burpies, as they involve more of the body and thus more effective overall conditioning effect. Oh, and they are an excellent way to help a young mind get focused on the job at hand.

Up downs are primarily a discipline thing, used to wake the kids up when they're checked out at practice or for school related problems (e.g., a food fight in the cafeteria involving a couple of our guys). For the latter 1st problem it's 30, second problem we go to 60. Never got to a third problem, that's 100.

Oh and for extra measure we have the kids circle up, the offending parties go into the center and watch every one else do the work. A coach will bring a water bottle over, ask them if they need anything while they're standing there, would like a snack, etc. while every one else is hitting the ground and getting up. Very effective...

we do a ton of burpees year round. they are almost a 'staple' of our program.

we do up-downs as part of our mat drills program

here's some things to do (we call 'em grass drills) to bring 'getting up off the ground' into the fold:
when doing sprints, rather than always having your players start in a stance, have them lay on their back with their head pointing to the finish line. have them lay on their stomach facing the finish line. have them facing away. we do things like "on back, head to finish line, roll right, sprint" mix it up. incorporate movements from the ground into your sprint and/or agility work.

I really like Coach Huey's idea about sprint work from the ground. Never thought of that stuff...!

We use them as a correction tool - we call them reminders - for small mistakes. We also use them for conditioning in a variety of ways. I like it because the body gets used to absorbing impacts without much of a risk of injury. In old school verbage - "It toughens them up."

Yes, but it's very awkward to say.

We will use them as a reminder tool like Tog mentioned. Sometimes we will also use them as part of general conditioning. Sometimes we use them where we will do 5 quick up downs then immediately transition into a 10 yard sprint.