High School Athletic Development – bridging the Gap (Part 1)
We have been looking at the junior pathway to senior football a fair bit recently, and dived into the large jump that exists between junior football and senior football. As we covered, this jump is absolutely enormous when we are talking about the highest level of the sport in the AFL. However there is still a pattern that exists at all levels, of junior players lacking in the physical development required, that previous generations had.
Most recently we discussed the physical development pathway in America in comparison to ours here, and outlined that in order to make genuine development or improvement in this area – and have 17 and 18 year olds who are better prepared for the physical rigours of senior footy – at any level – but especially in the higher levels of the game – junior players require;
Time - say 2-3 sessions/days per week where it is a focus
Consistency – most weeks of the year, not a 4-week block, once a year!
Building on it in layers – year upon year – once again, not a one off year!
General, rather than anything ‘specific’ – broad athletic development – all the ‘specific’ stuff they get in football training.
Additionally, it would require a sector where the money and facilities (space the main thing) to host it are there, or could realistically be there without too much of a hassle.
The sector that ticks all the key boxes and provides the most realistic gap-filler on so many levels is of course the High School sector. This is nothing groundbreaking – we only need to look at the example set by our friends in the United States (and their vastly superior junior development opportunities provided). Some schools have already started to sort of give this a go – but for a majority of schools and certainly parents, the majority have never really even thought of it, or understand how to do it, and why to even bother.
So this is an area where we will dive into in detail over several parts looking at;
-The ‘why’ – exactly why schools are the best answer
-Looking at a few basic models for how it could be implemented
-What it could entail
-And being clear in these discussions that there will absolutely not be ONE WAY to do things – just a is the case in any other area of physical development.
The most important first step is understanding in more detail the why – why schools? And why do we need this in the first place?
And that is what we will cover today.
“The leaders of any school that participates in athletics should make sure that they are giving their athletes every resource available for them to be successful. Winning programs help foster school pride and community pride.”
Kevin Vanderbush
Strength & Conditioning Head Coach
Ben Davis High School
Indianapolis
(Since 1984)
A very important starting point – this is more than football
Even though football is of course the primary focus of this site, these junior physical development discussion apply across the board regardless of the sport. Indeed this discussion topic very much only has football (specifically) as a secondary focus, as junior physical development principles and opportunities available are very much the same regardless of the sport. Additionally, this high school focus applies to all sports participation, not just football. It is just that naturally, at many schools, footy will be the number one participation sport, together along with soccer depending on the school. So it is my hope that this discussion spreads through all junior sports participation and into high schools, not just through association with football.
A brief overview
Every discussion point that we will have regarding why the High School sector should provide a strength and conditioning/athletic development service to their student body can be traced back to 2 primary points;
- The changing norms of society and what they mean for all young adults – and especially the young developing athletic population.
- The changing responsibilities of the school sector and what they offer their students, the opportunity to provide this missing link in development, and to pioneer in a important area for many.
These 2 primary points sum up a very expansive discussion in a very brief nutshell. We will expand on both areas with key points, but will still endeavor to keep each discussion point as brief as possible.
The 2 most common thoughts against the suggestion of strength and conditioning/athletic development within the high school setting are;
“We have never had anything like this before. And everything has worked fine. Why now?”
“We already have PE.”
These responses merely show a lack of understanding of the situation, and also what the service would provide. And that is the key here, the primary thing that stands in the way is a lack of understanding about this area.
So ‘we have always done things this way. And everything is fine.’
But is it really?
The typical current high school student;
-Didn’t just go out and play in multiple activities or pick-up games.
-Only went to scheduled practices or games for a specific sport (involving mostly games or drill work, not movement ability.)
-Didn’t ride a bike or walk anywhere.
-Spent about 30-60 minutes per week in PE on actual physical activity.
-Didn’t climb a rope or play on jungle gyms as they were growing up.
-Didn’t do much manual labor at home on chores.
-Sat all day - with poor/terrible posture.
-Specialised early on a particular sport, so – they haven’t developed general strength and athleticism – and therefore arrive at high school age with strength/flexibility imbalances.
Now before moving on further, I need to be clear here, I am not really trying to outline the declining health and body shape of our teenager today. I think that more than enough is discussed in this space, and it doesn’t need further highlighting. Additionally, particularly in teenage boys, the problem isn’t immediately clear, as due to high levels of testosterone, growth hormone and other biological factors as they grow through these ages, their body fat tends to be low on average as well. I am not highlighting the need for a boot camp to whip them in shape.
I am focused entirely on the movement and athletic development point of view in their development. Because just because someone has a low body fat percentage and looks ok, doesn’t mean that they function and move well. So in that previous list of points that was made about the average high school student today, they were made with movement ability and eventual athleticism in mind.
In a nutshell, what I am saying is that the basic and broad foundation that the teenagers/youth of years and generations gone by could rely on from incidental development, no loner exists. As result, with minimal to no foundation, what are these teenagers and young athletes developing all their sport-specific play on top of?
“But we already have PE”
For decades Physical Education was the one area that EVERY student right through the grades could rely on where they were forced into general physical development whether they wanted it, liked it or not. However, with every passing generation, this has become more and more diluted, or in some cases eroded completely. Physical education isn’t what it was generations back, or even a generation back. Today, physical education;
-Has less time dedicated to it each week as a subject
-Loses time every session (probably 10 minutes per lesson) to students getting changed into PE uniform, then back into school uniform
-Doesn’t remain a compulsory subject through high school – and certainly many of the athletic population are also academically driven – meaning that PE misses out at the expense of maths, physics, chemistry and English.
-And worst of all - has become much more of an academic subject rather than what it is meant to be – Physical – as in physical literacy. This is particularly the case in the older years – right when young developing bodies need the physical work the most, they are having to use this time to sit more and recite science rather than move. A key point here is that Physical literacy has nothing to do with being able to explain the difference between anaerobic and aerobic, or knowing the 11 steps that convert carbohydrate into pyruvic acid, or how the krebs cycle operates.
-The ‘physical’ that has been mercifully left in physical education today is games-based. Say European handball, or badminton. Not physical development and movement ability. Personally I loved playing these sports in PE in high school, and I certainly would not advocate getting rid of these – but a better balance could be struck. It isn’t much good being 16 and being unable to do proper push-ups, proper pull ups, squat, lunge, bend, brace and rotate properly.
So in a nutshell, the 2 combined;
So not only do we have less and less incidental physical things (chores, play, everyday life – via the changing societal norms) building a foundation, but we have less and less physical education, and less and less PHYSICAL in physical education. If that is the way/trend that we are going to continue to go with students in general then we are doing them a serious disservice! But I do believe that it is far more realistic to implement an athletic development/strength and conditioning program of sorts in the high school setting, than it is to expect the pattern to change up the top of the education department.
One more quick point….
“We did a block of weights in term 3”
It is becoming more common for the PE curriculum to involve a short period of introductory weight training for some component of the PE year.
However this is a 6 or 8 week block (which again will also involve a considerable theory component chewing into valuable physical time) and then at the end of the block, that is it for the strength work. It is isolated, with no progression and in truth, no actual benefit for the students.
The need is for this to be available and coached all year long, not for a short period, with minimal system, and then stored away in the archives for another 12 months with no ‘legacy.’
A related point…..The role of the PE Teacher
A teachers primary role is to teach the physical education curriculum. Their time is spent running PE lessons, marking homework, doing lesson plans, rotating in their role on yard duty, looking after their home-room class, as well as teaching their secondary subject that they teach. In short, their days a chock-full of tasks in addition to their running of PE classes.
A PE teacher is not a specialist in the field of strength and conditioning/athletic development – dedicated entirely to this pursuit (although some do have previous experience in it – in some cases a long history – it is not their primary focus). This service of strength & conditioning involves daily practice of nothing else but the delivery of athletic development coaching and programming. As well as staying abreast of the latest methods and information, and continual self improvement in this field – as the sole profession.
They are not the same thing. They overlap in some places, but they are 2 different careers, with different knowledge bases and scopes of focus, and as a result, a clear distinction must be recognised.
The high school setting – providing more and more professional services and developmental services
Athletic development can be looked at as another key co-curricular service that High Schools in their brief of preparing their students for the outside world as adults provide. This is not just the case for the athletically minded and gifted who are likely to make it to a professional level, but students who aim to get the most out of their own personal abilities – whether that be local or amateur level.
Additionally, in the ever-competitive sphere that exists between schools for students, this also becomes a further promoted and put in front of prospective students and parents with what the school provides. Many teenage boys (more so that girls) are interested in weights for example – and they will go on doing it themselves, guessing their way through, developing issues, imbalances and injuries, and gaining no real benefit in the process. Parents on the flip side often express their concern about what their son does at the gym, because not only do they not know what they are doing, but their son is of course easily lead by the internet and whatever others are doing (due to no coaching or direction – or the wrong kind of direction in a 45-minute kill-yourself-as-much-as-possible-with-no-movement-quality-session.)
However, having full time access to this type of professional service, both sides of this negative equation are eliminated.
We can’t do what we always have done, or rely on what we always have done?
Because societal norms are changing. We must adapt and progress.
So lets just sum up by looking at the benefits;
Benefits for the student
-Full time access to a professional – and within the normal school day (a topic we will go into more detail next time)
-Development of key foundations and progressions, with proper technique and programming
-Less injury
-Improved performance
-Confidence
-Improved concentration levels – with the added benefit of the carryover to other areas within the academic curriculum
-Importantly avoid the pitfalls of teaching themselves or Instagram/Youtube learning. Of course these will still be present, however a coach minimises the impact.
-Stops them going into a gym and potentially being coached by a minimally qualified cowboy (a big issue in the industry is anyone can open their own facility, and every personal trainer seems to be ‘strength and conditioning coach’ now) There are brilliant coaches out there – the issue for parents and students is – in such a saturated field – how do you identify them?
Benefits for the school
-All of the above – in short – a new area to offer the student body in their development. Any benefit to the individual student is in reality multiplied 1000 times over when considering the benefit to the school.
-Opportunity to be a leader/pioneer within the area
-School pride/culture development within the athletic population
As a school system that prides itself on recruiting qualified professionals in every facet of the educational setting, we owe it to our student-body to offer them the best instructional environment possible.
The cost of implementing such a service and program is negligible. Especially when compared with the $40 million expense of building a new sports complex or science lab.
Hopefully this introductory discussion has provided a deeper understanding for the need for this service, based around the situation that we find ourselves in today as a society, but specifically a sporting minded one. Please share this – or discuss these things – with anyone associated with junior sport or the high school setting (I know several PE teachers and high school footy coaches who agree and are keen to keep pushing it.)
We will next dive into more of the specifics of the how – as of course, there are still many questions that will come up, as well as many options at our disposal.
Strength Coach
