Weight Training & School Day

If you force kids to do a double block be ready to handle some backlash. I teach a freshman level class but ended up with seniors in my class (my class is required for graduation) because the previous school they were at did this and they never had time in their schedule for all the electives that they needed to graduate. They spent the last semester of their senior year taking all those classes while the other seniors had early dismissal and late arrival. Needless to say the parents of those boys were pissed.

We are in our first year of during school day weights classes with an actual strength coach. Previously weights class was randomly assigned to a PE teacher, none of whom had any experience or real understanding of strength training.
1. Go talk to school counselors to help random students understanding the intensity of the course vs. other PE classes
This lack of understanding led to many none athletes taking the class and thus taking up spots. We had 40 per 46 minute class period. None of the 7;classes are over 30 after the first month with kids that have dropped.
2. Have a plan for kids who can’t get into the class, we have kids who had to decide between weights and honors/dual credit courses….take the college credits!
3. Have a solid plan for when the strength guy is gone… subs in the weight room are scary.
4. There will be in-season and out of season athletes in the same class, how will that look work for you. We strongly support multi-sport athletes and so does our strength coach. Of 105 football kids this season, 42 are three sport athletes, 34 are 2 sport athletes. The kids who are only football kids fall into 2 categories. 1. Kids who went out for track to get better for football and then quit track as juniors or seniors. 2. Kids who have financial obligations in their family and can only do 1 sport.

I have a football weights class this semester (I just got done with my first season as a HC). It was the first time the school has had something like this in about 10 years. Our weight room isn't nice, but I have about 46 kids in my class. We have a block schedule, so I see the kids 2 or 3 times a week for 85 minutes each day. While it isn't ideal, this is the most consistency most of these kids have had.

Depending on your set up, it takes some creativity to have an effective workout. We use dumbbells and also do some bodyweight work. It's been crazy to see the growth in the kids in just 9 weeks.

Next school year, my scheduling assistant principal has worked with me to create more athletic periods for the rest of the school, as well as football players that can't get in the class. It takes creativity and an administration that is willing to invest in you, but I've already seen it pay off this semester.

I was at a school that used it.  Once the kids understand it and how it works then it can be effective.  The big thing was having kids of the same strength working together.  If they have to change weight all the time it will kill the flow of what it is supposed to do.  Also, have the kids name on a list with which number in the group they are, Lifter 1, 2, or 3.  That way you can look at the sheet and know who is supposed to be lifting.  Kids that want to skate and skip sets and reps are going to find a way but it is a nice way to keep them on task.  It does not leave a lot of room for coaching the lifts as you go either.

We use Rack Coach... I like it alot ... some work on the front end but really good... the app isn't great but we have a TV set up in weight room and have computer ran to it to display the workout and the clock

We have offered weight training for our kids for years, but we didn't place all athletes in the class because of our weight room size. This year, we were lucky to expand and make our weight room bigger, thus we implemented athletic PE. Our classes range from 16 all the way to over 40 kids. The bigger classes have at least two teachers (all coaches) in there to help supervise. Our classes are 45 min periods. With them changing into PE clothes, we get around 30min of work done. Our classes are open to everyone, but the majority of kids are athletes. The weight room is running for 8 class periods a day. I think this semester we have 246 kids that go through there each day.

Like what's been said previously, it's a tight schedule, but it's doable and you can get a lot of good work done in that time. We keep them on a clock. They get 7:30 per station and we get through 4 stations. We lift full body, 3 days a week and spend two days training speed/plyos. We use Strength Sheets to get the workout to the kids. This keeps devices out of the weight room. The kids get their weights on the sheets so they are lifting appropriately for the program.

And, you have to keep in mind the flow of things for it all to run smoothly and so that they can get everything done. If you don't, you can have stations log-jammed and kids standing around.

I didn't feel like this question warranted a new thread, so I'll ask it here.

We offer 7 weight lifting classes per day (block schedule, each period is ~100 minutes long). We do not have complete buy in from our guidance department on pushing all football players into the same weight lifting class, but out of ~100 kids in the program, we have ~60 in weight lifting classes at some point during the day.

We also have after school workouts 3 days a week where we lift the kids who don't have weight lifting during the school day, and go over Xs and Os.

The problem we're running into is that most of the kids who need the Xs and Os work the most take weight lifting during the day and we don't need them lifting twice a day 3 days a week. Has anyone dealt with a similar situation? How would you balance this? Xs and Os first, then let the kids who already lifted leave? Another idea?

Thanks in advance!

Is this an IN-SEASON issue?  Off-Season issue?  Or BOTH?  Our varsity lifted twice per week in-season (M-lower body; W-upper body).
JV lifted only once per week in-season (T-Core lifts only).  Varsity off-season was 3 days per week (muscle building).  JV off-season twice per week.  With your ability to lift during the school day for 100 minutes you could split the lifting/x's and o's/film easily in-season.  Off-season could work by scheduling lifting on winter/spring sports practice days and x's/o's/film on winter/spring sports game days.

1- Offer the X&O part at lunch 
2- Start your after-school sessions with the X&O part then the people who have lifted can just leave 

1. We have 4 lunch periods that occur during 3rd block. It would not be possible for us to do that during lunch.
2. This is probably the best option with how things are currently.

I'm really not sure how much is gained from "chalk talk," or even film, without being able to take it directly to the field. Do you stand up and move around to demo anything? 

Ok, so we've got quite the setup going here... We have Varsity, JV, and Frosh FB lifting classes, 2x Athletic Training classes, 2x Gen Pop Weights.

Our class size is limited by union contracts, which read "45, no more than 50", which works out fairly nicely since we have 12 stations to train at in the weight room, so it equals out to about 4 kids per station.

Football players only in the football classes, any who quit are removed as soon as feasible. Athletes classes are 95% athletes, kids who aren't athletes don't want to do what we're doing in there. Gen Pop is just whoever signs up. I get a fair amount of say in who is in the athletes classes, but guidance counselors still have the final say.

Some random thoughts:
1 - Get in good w/ your guidance staff, you'll need them to see the vision and understand the big picture. Thank them profusely and unendingly.
2 - Look at your state standards for PE and actually attempt to address them at some point, don't rob the kids of an education because you're too focused on football.
3 - Communicate standards, expectations, and grading well ahead of time to stakeholders. This is kinda common sense in any situation, but for weights it's REALLY important because there's A LOT of parents/guidance counselors who don't 'get it'. You're going to have parents who are upset that little Jaxtynn somehow doesn't have an A+, you need to prepare for that.
4 - If you're going to have high numbers, embrace supersets and exercises that kids can't screw up like planks, band pull aparts, db curls, etc, so that they're constantly moving and never really standing around. This is a classroom management strategy as much as a fitness thing.
5 - Auditory processing is dead. Use videos, pictures, physical demonstration, and external cues as much as possible.
6 - We use the NFHS Learn website to deliver mini-projects once a quarter, it's a nice break to catch up on grades and just relax, the weight room is tiring to teach day after day.
7 - We use Teambuildr, but Rack seems dope, too.
8 - True 1rm maxing isn't really necessary. Just have them do an RPE 9 set every so often and use that to gauge progress/adjust maxes.
9 - You probably don't need as many lifts as you think you do.
10 - Warm up variety seems to be a good thing.
11 - For real, auditory processing is dead.
12 - The boys will want to go heavier than they should, the girls will want to be technique perfectionists and need encouraging to actually train heavy.
13 - Weights are dope, but do athletic things, too. Jump, skip, hop, bound, sprint.


Honestly, I could probably do this all day.