Complete Conditioning for Football: Part 5

By Michael J. Arthur & Bryan Bailey

Thanks to an agreement with Human Kinetics, NFLHS.com is able to provide our visitors with excerpts from the book "Complete Conditioning for Football."

During the past three decades the University of Nebraska football program has set the pace for successful conditioning. Now, two members of the Cornhuskers' strength and conditioning staff present the same program used by Nebraska to power its way to national championships.

The book includes 98 proven position-specific exercises that help players at all levels improve speed, agility, power, and endurance. The guide covers basic training principles of adaptation, specificity, overload, and periodization. It also lists which drills are beneficial for some players but not for others, and includes guidelines for proper rest and balanced nutrition.

How to Train

Last week we determined that speed, agility, power and endurance are the athletic abilities important for football. A training program must not only allow the body to adapt to the loads placed upon it in order to become better conditioned, it must also adapt the body specifically for playing football. Swimming or bicycling of long distances does not duplicate the requirements needed to play football. Of course, the most specific way to become a better football player is by playing football, but most coaches and athletes understand that other modes of training can improve the abilities of athletes to become better football players.

The key to determining what training is best for football is to ask does an exercise or drill improve the athlete's ability to perform better in his sport? Coaches often confuse the difference between physiological (strength and endurance) and performance improvement. Exercises and drills must specifically match the biomechanical needs of football. The sequential activation of muscle groups must be timed in the proper motor unit recruitment patterns, with the proper force production, so that movements can be done powerfully with coordination and balance. For example, a player who does a lot of leg extensions or leg curls may improve his strength in these movements, but there is little transfer of training specific to the proper motor unit recruitment patterns of sprinting and jumping performance.

Many athletes are more concerned with how they look on the beach than how they perform on the field. Exercises done in front of a mirror that isolate and pump the arms, chest, and the shoulders become the focus of these athletes' strength programs. However, there is no single best exercise or drill; rather, a variety of exercises and drills complement each other in order to make the best training progress. The goal of any program is to get the greatest return (performance improvement) on your investment (proper selection of exercise and drills). The following biomechanical guidelines determine the core exercises and drills of the strength and interval training programs used in this book.

The most important principle to remember when selecting lifting exercises and running drills is that they should allow you to apply force against the ground with your feet. This principle carries through to the other principles described later. The first step in analyzing a movement is to determine the position of the feet and hands. Do this by determining whether the movement is an open or closed chain movement. In an open chain movement the hands or feet can move freely, such as the feet moving forward when punting the ball or the movement of the hand when throwing a football. In a closed chain movement the hands and feet are fixed, such as hands when doing a push-up or the feet pushing hard against the ground during sprinting or jumping.

No athletic movement is a totally closed or open chain movement but a combination of the two. Most movements start with a closed chain movement and finish with an open chain movement. Movement of the body is impossible without first applying force against the ground (closed chain movement). Exerting force against the ground with the feet causes an equal and opposite reaction in the direction of movement. Any exercise or drill initiated by a closed chain movement is called a ground-based activity.

Football skills such as sprinting, blocking, tackling, and throwing are ground-based activities. Depending on the skill, the hands act in an open chain or combination open/closed chain movement. With sprinting the feet are closed chain when applying force against the ground, but the movement is open chain during the swing phase when the feet move forward. The hands are open chain because they swing freely during the entire sprinting action. During tackling and blocking the hands are at times moving freely, and at other times their movement is closed chain because they become somewhat fixed when contact is made with the opponent.

Try this experiment. First throw the football as you normally would with your feet on the ground. Next, jump straight up in the air, as high as you can, and throw the football. Which method allows you to throw the greatest distance?

Did you find that you could throw much farther with your feet on the ground? You must have your feet on the ground to express maximum force. The more force you apply against the ground, the faster you run and the more effectively you block and tackle.

The body's ability to stabilize joint actions contributes to proper neuromuscular coordination of the multiple joint actions needed for football. For example, the initial action of throwing a football originates from the muscular contractions of the hips and legs exerting a force against the ground in a backward direction. The earth, being more stable because of its large mass, does not move, and the reaction to this force is exerted through the athlete in a forward direction. As the athlete extends his legs against the ground his ankle, knee and hip joints stabilize as the reaction force transfers to the torso (stomach and lower back). The torso rotates and then stabilizes as the muscular force is relayed to the chest and shoulders, and then to the arms and wrist, which display the greatest motion. The force applied to the football is possible because the muscles effectively stabilize the joints as they sequentially contract. Thus, jumping in the air and throwing the ball, as illustrated in the experiment, does not allow the leg and hip joints to effectively stabilize.

Find more information about the book Complete Conditioning for Football by clicking here.

Mike J. Arthur, C.S.C.S., is regarded as one of the most knowledgeable strength coaches in the nation. He joined the University of Nebraska staff as an assistant strength and conditioning coach in 1976. In 1994 he was named assistant director of athletic performance at Nebraska. During his tenure at Nebraska, the university has produced many advances in the strength programs used by athletes throughout the nation. His research helps Nebraska stay on the cutting edge of football conditioning. In 1995 Arthur was named National Collegiate Strength and Conditioning Coach of the Year by the Professional Football Strength and Conditioning Society.

An AAU wrestling champion at 123 pounds for Nebraska in 1970, Arthur was a collegiate and junior national powerlifting champion in the 132-pound weight class in 1977. A ten-time Nebraska powerlifting champion, he set a world record with a 540.25-pound dead lift in the 132-pound class.

He and his wife Reena have two daughters, Tara and Rachel, and a son, John.

Bryan L. Bailey, C.S.C.S., specializes in reconditioning athletes. He has served as an assistant strength and conditioning coach on the University of Nebraska staff since 1987. Nationally recognized for his innovative training methods for reconditioning, Bryan works with doctors and trainers to modify injured athletes' strength and conditioning programs.

Bryan received a B.S. degree in exercise physiology from the University of Nebraska and an M.S. degree in exercise science from the United States Sports Academy.