Functional Training

Why Our Programs Will Achieve Excellence through Functional Training What is functional training? Functional training you are coaching athletes to master a skill before progressing (what matters is mastering skills). Functional training’s number one goal is injury reduction, through multi joint movements. Functional training for our high school athletes will develop SPEED, STRENGTH, and SIZE in this order.Strengthing of Tendons and Ligaments must be first. Then large muscles can be developed. The high school athlete should follow the progressions to becoming the strongest guy/girl at the body weight they are at. How well/fast you can move your body weight under control, will determine how fast you can be. “RELATIVE BODY STRENGTH” Our Nine Functional Path Rules: 1. Have a plan, execute it and evaluate it. We have developed at Sussex Tech a sound clear plan in order to give us direction and purpose. Our athletes should be trained seasonal. One sport athletes should go through a plan like this; off season 8 weeks, post-season 8 weeks, pre-season 8 weeks, and in season 8 weeks. If the athletes are hybrids or two or three sport athletes they should stay in the pre-season phase for 8 to 24 weeks. The coach’s job is to execute and evaluate how the plan goes. 2. Build the complete athlete. When building we think in terms of how the body works together as a link system. Training linkage transfers to efficient movement, efficient movement transfers to improve performance. The athlete must strengthen every link to improve performance and prevent injury. Coaches must evaluate and teach this. 3. Train fundamental movement skills progress to more difficult movement skills. We coach athletes to master a skill before progressing. The athletes must learn how to handle their own body weight first. Keep it simple to be smart. Examples: Hands free squat to medicine ball squat to over head medicine ball squats to barbell squats/one legged squats. Modified push ups to push ups to bench press/plyometric push ups. 4. Build the athlete from the ground up. The legs are the base upon which we can build the most effective athlete. Sound functional leg strength will ensure efficient movement and will help prevent injuries. Two legged exercises progressed to one legged exercises 5. Train from the core out. The core allows the entire body to accelerate the limbs. The core allows the entire body to decelerate the limbs. The core allows the entire body to support a limb. All training is core training because the core is active in all movements. 6. Base the program in the needs of the sport. Understand the demands of your sport. If it is a speed and power sport, then the work should reflect that; doing endurance work for a speed and power sport is counter-productive. 7. Train each individual. This is perhaps the most difficult thing to address when working with groups; however it is key for improvement. Every individual has different fitness levels in terms of training. The outcome in terms of results could be the same, but the path to that outcome could be very different. 8. Training is cumulative. There are no instant results. Training accumulates over time; the longer the athlete can be in a systematic training program, the better chance for long term success. No one workout can make an athlete. Training is long term planning together with athlete and coach. 9. Restoration/Recovery. Recovery takes places between each rep, each set, each session and each year. (SLEEP and NUTRITION). In order to win the athlete must think:” What’s Important Now”. One must understand that you “DIE on a diet”. Nutrition must be a life style. To keep this simple, in order to maximize recovery the athlete must adhere to these guidelines: If you can not hunt it down and kill it, pick it out of a tree/ ground, fish it out of the ocean. If it comes with a label and has high fructose corn syrup, enriched/wheat, or Trans fats in it. Then it is not good for you and is not going to help, so do not eat it!! Picture yourself eating pure, and every piece of that food becoming every cell of your body. Sleep 8 hours a night!