Introducing new high school athletes to a strength and conditioning program presents unique challenges. Often, coaches must start at the very beginning, gradually building up athletes to achieve success on and off the field. Each athlete is different, however, and requires an individualized approach toward learning the basics of athletic performance training. But there are some fundamental lessons that every student-athlete must understand in order to succeed. Discovery Canyon (Colo.) High School head strength and conditioning coach Sam Melendrez knows this all too well.
Melendrez Knows His Business
Melendrez has been coaching students on how to train since the school opened 16 years ago. He is the school’s sole strength and conditioning coach, leading the training of all athletes from each sport. His program was awarded the “Strength of America Award” by the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) multiple times for his excellence at the high school level. He also won the NSCA’s High School Strength and Conditioning Coach of the Year Award in 2021 and is a member of the NSCA’s executive council for the High School Coaches Special Interest Group. He is striving to drive awareness to the need for dedicated strength and conditioning programs in high schools.
Although athletes may have previous experience working out, most high school students step into the weight room for the first time with little to no grasp on navigating it efficiently and safely. If they don’t understand the mechanics and flow of the strength training program, big issues can emerge limiting their training effectiveness. Knowing how to train must be their first goal.
Coach Melendrez explains how he gets athletes started in the weight room.
“The number one thing they need to learn is how to train,” says Melendrez. “That just means being able to follow a structured program, follow a system of rotating through the room effectively and remaining coachable. We tell them to be coachable, give your best effort, stay dialed in. Those three things sum up learning how to train.”
Strength training is about more than just knowing how to navigate the weight room. Athletes must also dedicate themselves to their training. Many don’t comprehend the depth of commitment required to show up consistently each week and diligently follow a program’s instructions. Melendrez explains that learning how to train is a process and is structured, not unlike the athletes’ other sport practices.
“If I don’t get them on board with understanding what it is to train, none of those other things matter,” says Melendrez. “Before we start unpacking the specifics of Block 0 programming, the athlete must buy in.”
Block 0 is often defined as a method for introducing athletes to organized strength and conditioning, while assuming that their relative training age is 0, meaning they have no experience training in a weight room.
“I must connect with them – No. 1 – to earn that trust before we can embrace this process of training,” he says.
Begin At The Beginning
Discovery Canyon’s strength program focuses first on fundamental movements. Melendrez introduces athletes to the most regressed movements he can think of in different categories: squatting, pushing, pulling, hinging or hip-dominant, and carrying. To launch athletes down this path, Coach Melendrez utilizes the landmine, a small attachment for a barbell with one end anchored to a wall or squat rack. Landmines allow beginners to perform effective and convenient exercises within limited space.
Coach Melendrez talks about maintaining a safe environment for his athletes.
“Let’s say we’re talking about a hip-dominant movement,” says Melendrez. “We’ll start talking about a bilateral, hip-hinge movement with the landmine in the center of the body. Then, we’ll progress to a single-leg or a unilateral hip hinge with one arm to one leg. Next, we may move onto a kettlebell swing or a kettlebell hip hinge if we’re not quite ready to handle those velocities. Then we’ll start moving into barbells. For us, that’s kind of a quick and dirty overview of how we move kids up from that Block 0.”
For weight rooms limited in area available for squat racks, landmines create space so more people can train simultaneously, which is invaluable for any strength coach in charge of over a handful of athletes. Landmines also limit range of motion, so athletes can more easily maintain proper form. Once they become familiar with landmine movements, they can move onto exercises involving more complex technique.
Though learning how to perform practical workouts is necessary, athletes who haven’t learned the required mindset can experience less desirable outcomes. Training is a process that demands discipline and effort – along with a high level of trust between coaches and athletes – for athletes to achieve elite results. Without establishing a foundation rooted in how an athlete must train, none of it is possible.
Landmine Squat
- Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, facing the barbell perpendicularly.
- Lift the weighted side of the barbell up to chest height with both hands on the top end.
- Inhale and engage your core.
- Lengthen your spine as you squat down. Do not arch your back!
- Move your hips back and bend your knees into a deep squat.
- Stop when your thighs are slightly below parallel to the floor.
- Quickly extend your legs and hips forward, engaging your glutes and legs as you push back up into the starting position.
- Exhale at the top.
Kettlebell Swing
- Stand up straight with your feet shoulder-width apart.
- Loosen arms and hold the kettlebell out in front of you.
- Engage your core and roll back your shoulders, squeezing your shoulder blades together.
- Bend your knees, push back your hips and shift your body weight to your heels.
- Inhale and quickly pull the kettlebell back between your legs until your wrists are between your thighs and the kettlebell is behind your legs.
- Exhale as you swing the kettlebell back upward using your hips and quads. Your arms should finish out in front of you, parallel to the floor.
- Let the weight of the kettlebell pull itself back down between your legs. Shift your weight back to your heels while hinging at your hips and loading your hamstrings and glutes.
- To repeat, drive through your heels and hips as the kettlebell transitions from moving backward to forward.
