52-Week Football Training: Part 1

By Ben Cook

Thanks to an agreement with Human Kinetics Publishing, NFLHS.com is proud to present 52-Week Football Training, a book that provides the conditioning plan you need to maximize football-specific physical development and motivation. Players can gain the perfect balance of power, speed, and agility by implementing this proven in-season and off-season training plan.

Conditioning coach Ben Cook, who has worked with 27 players that went on to the NFL, includes more than 160 photos showing correct technique and nearly 200 exercises and drills.

Most sports require a variety of skills. Jumping, sprinting, lateral movement, endurance--all are tools of the athlete's trade. An athlete with these skills can more effectively perform his sport. Loss of strength or an inability to continue as a result of fatigue can severely hinder sport performance, but an athlete can correct these deficiencies by developing and completing a proper year-round physical conditioning program. Resistance training, flexibility training, cardiorespiratory conditioning, speed development, and regulation of body composition are elements that an athlete can exploit to improve performance.

The purpose of this book is to show you, the football player or coach, how to use constructive, progressive exercise to improve playing ability. The book is unique in that it provides a complete 52-week exercise plan for high-performance football. Built on a typical academic and athletic calendar, the plan can be used, with only slight variations, by players in any high school or college program in the country. By using periodization principles that modulate intensity you'll promote maximum muscle growth and, most important, proper muscle recovery.

This book neatly lays out a year-round system of physical training: resistance training, overall conditioning, and fitness and skill abilities. Physical training alone, however, will not totally prepare you to succeed in your sport. You must consider other factors that go beyond the scope of this book but still demand mentioning.

• Nutrition:
proper nutrition is a critical element in the promotion of recovery. Without taking in the proper amount of calories as nutrients, the muscles you have worked so diligently to train will fail to heal fully. Each workout thereafter will only promote further fatigue, and eventually overtraining will result in a loss of strength and performance. Therefore, you should be equally concerned with the amount and type of food that you are providing your body.
• Mental preparation:
Another important factor to consider is the mental training that parallels physical training. Physical success is virtually impossible unless the mental desire to succeed accompanies your physical efforts. Almost every athlete believes that he can perform a physical task until he fails the first time. Each failure thereafter only solidifies the athlete's doubt in his ability to succeed. Therefore, you must create planned workouts that promote achievement rather than failure. Structured achievement is linked to constructive goal setting.
• Goal setting:
setting a goal can be motivational. Setting an objective that you can realistically reach can act as a stimulus to prove yourself. Goals can be simple, like getting out of bed in the morning when the alarm rings. Goals can be difficult, too, such as rushing for 1,000 yards or making 80 solo tackles in a season. Whatever you choose as your goals, make plans to obtain them realistically and systematically.

In a physical conditioning program, you should set specific goals that you can divide into smaller steps. These steps are small goals within themselves that lead to the ultimate goal. Coaches and trainers need to adopt a plan that an athlete is comfortable with and has taken some part in designing. In this way, an athlete will approach the goal with more enthusiasm.

Confidence is an athlete's biggest weapon against defeat. With successful goal setting, an athlete can gain that all-so-important confidence, making the goal more easily obtainable.

The biggest obstacle between you and success is yourself. Only through consistent, structured training and an unflinching desire to be the best will you meet your goals. So what are you waiting for? LET'S GO TRAIN!

Find more information about the book 52-Week Football Training by clicking here.

From 1990 to 1994, author Ben Cook was the assistant strength and conditioning coach for the University of North Carolina (UNC) football team, where his assistance helped 27 players reach the NFL. He is currently the strength coach for the Tar Heel basketball team, one of the nation's top programs.