Have a Purpose behind Training....

Human performance is something that is very near and dear to my heart. I can see through the eyes of a strength and conditioning coach as well as through the eyes of a head football coach. The balance for how best to prepare for battle on Fridays and Saturdays lies somewhere in between.

Training philosophy
You must be efficient in your training: From a coaching standpoint, you must be efficient at teaching so that you maintain your audience’s attention. From the athletes’ standpoint, you must be efficient because you’re balancing academics, time needed for developing sport-specific skills, and perhaps other sports. This doesn’t even include texting and messing with your iPod. You must be efficient in implementing whatever it is you want. Time is the only thing you and your opponent share. Who will use it most wisely?

What this means in regards to training is that you may want to implement many different movements when in reality you don’t have time to teach them or do them justice in the short time you have. This also includes following someone else’s routine. Being efficient is “performing or functioning in the best possible manner with the least waste of time and effort.” It isn’t “no pain no gain,” but “no brain no gain.”

If you can’t teach it, don’t implement it: There are literally thousands of exercises and movements that can be considered beneficial. You have to decide wisely what is best for you and your program. A perfect example is the Olympic lifts. Don’t stick them in your workout if you have no idea what triple extension is or how to perform these movements. I’m not saying that you have to be able to perform them at the highest level yourself when demonstrating. However, you do need to be able to communicate and understand why they’re in your program.

The coach wouldn’t install a screen play if he didn’t know how to draw the play on the board, verbally communicate it to players, evaluate it once executed, give feedback after running the play, implement it in practice, and call it during the game. Why should the insertion of a new exercise be any different?

Never stop learning: This applies to coaches and players. The first step to gaining knowledge is to realize you don’t have all the answers. With that said, let me be the first to admit that I don’t have all the answers, and I love the journey of continually searching for ways to do things better. Seek out experts in different areas, watch videos, read books, network with others, and always ask questions. With the progress of the internet, there is a resource for every component of training—nutrition, flexibility, conditioning, and so on.

There are many different yet effective ways to skin a cat: Before training, you must understand that there isn’t one single best way to train. You can get great results from a variety of methods and programs. During your training career, it will also be beneficial to utilize a variety of these to avoid physical and mental burnout. Don’t get caught up in what someone else or some other program is doing. You may not be prepared to engage in that type of training. You may not have the resources and or proper equipment.

Different athletes respond differently to training as well as to how they learn. When dealing with high school and college athletes, an incoming freshman is very different from a senior or fifth year student. As a result, both athletes will be at different points in their training age and will respond and require different types of training. As a coach and player, I’ve used three-day splits, four-day splits, Olympic lifts, speed equipment, no equipment, circuit training, linear periodization, and conjugate periodization. I’ve had results from all of them. Developing the best training plan is like a puzzle. Find where the pieces go.

Your peak will only be as high as the base: Athletes can play any sport because they possess abilities that can translate to all movements. Just like the fundamentals of blocking and tackling are necessary for success on the field, basic strength, flexibility, and speed mechanics are necessary for a player’s success. Sometimes too much time and energy is spent on fancy or “in vogue” things that an athlete isn’t ready for or doesn’t need.

Players need to be motivated: In a dream world, all players would be intrinsically motivated. Because this isn’t the case, we need to find a way to motivate the extrinsic type as well. For example, have T-shirts for award winners. I’m always amazed at how much T-shirts mean to players or what they will do to earn one. Try having 1000-lb Club T-shirts, Iron (mascot) T-shirts based off of the strength index (clean, squat, and bench divided by body weight), or 3 X 3 Club T-shirts for set gains on the three major lifts over an off-season or summer.

A record board is a must. It will get athletes competing with each other to have their names on it. Include videos of weight training and speed work on your team’s highlight video. Include pictures of award winners in your summer manual. Have daily competitions to teach athletes how to be seven-second competitors. Write personal notes encouraging players and recognize great effort in front of the team. Be creative in how you motivate. You could have the best program in the world on paper, but if the player isn’t motivated, it’s useless. Like the old saying goes, they don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.

Developing High School Physical Preparedness

Over the last month I’ve been working with the local high school to develop a program to physically prepare the athletes for their given sport. The significance of this school is that it is particularly small. This makes athletics dependent on athletes participating in multiple sporting competitions. So the most important consideration is the induced fatigue almost year round from sport practice and competition. This made frequency and recovery highly important when designing a program for athletes that are exerting such high efforts throughout the year.

All that being said, the focus was on a program that didn’t require high frequency of training but was still able to develop advancement in the preparedness of the athletes. This meant that proper alternation in workouts was needed. Exercises in consecutive training sessions should minimally involve the same muscle groups and thus repeat the same pattern of muscle coordination (Zatsiorsky 1995). Also, when large muscle groups are worked, rest periods of 48 hours are optimal. For optimal recovery from training and competition, a three-day per week program was implemented. The lower body was worked on day one, the upper body was worked on day two, and the full body was worked on day three. This allowed for optimal recovery between large muscle groups, and muscle groups were worked twice a week.

With athletes of this age range (14–18), certain qualities need to be prioritized for further development. Enough power related work must be done during the early years to maintain the genetically determined levels of white muscle fibers. However, until the desired somatotype is developed, methods to increase cross sections of muscles must be emphasized. After this, the reverse is true (Francis 1987).

The choice for power exercises ranges from a snatch/clean variation to a plyometric/medicine ball progression. To promote maximal strength, sets are held at five reps and will sometimes drop to three. Using more than five reps per set during the learning phase of a new exercise will usually make correct technique harder to reproduce. Enough weight should be used so that force production increases but not so heavy that the cardiovascular component is completely absent from the exercise (Rippetoe 1997).

Single repetitions could potentially be dangerous for some younger athletes because the high percentage requires a lot of coordination to perform the movement.With so many athletes participating in multiple sports, exercise variation can have a heavy influence on adaptation and thus lead to soreness. If you have played a basketball game with fatigued legs due to training, you know what I’m talking about. In the end, performance in competition and injury prevention are the main goals. So exercise selection of “core” lifts will remain the same while supplementary ones will change. This will induce as little soreness as possible when transitioning to a new mesocycle.

Example of core lifts include the front squat, Romanian deadlift, bench press, and rear foot elevated split squat (RFESS). Some may think that not alternating core exercises will ultimately lead to stagnation or plateau. However, every time you complete a performance goal that passes previous results, your body is introduced to a new stimulation and will be forced to adapt. The avoidance of stagnation is how intensity is set. The training principle known as progressive overload is key. As Mike Boyle once stated, if you take an athlete and have him front squat 135 lbs for ten reps while only adding two and a half pound weights to each side each proceeding week, by the end of the year, he could potentially be at 395 lbs. Many problems with programs fail because athletes miss reps. So in selecting weight, the athletes started at a moderate load and used progressive overload at small increments throughout the training cycles. The athletes have shown improvement each week and PRs are already being set.

Example:

Freshman: Football, basketball, track, and baseball

Weeks 1–4 (last set recorded each week)
Front squat X 5: 165, 170, 175, 180 (PR)Romanian deadlift X 5: 155, 160, 165, 165 Hang clean X 3: 170, 175, 185 (PR)RFESS X 10: 100, 105, 110, 115Bench press X 5: 145, 150, 155, 160Warm up/activation should address coordination, preparation for training, and the undoing of the poor postural habits throughout the day. Taking into account that students are sitting for almost the entire day while at school, a build up of stiffness and tissue creep may occur. When students are sitting for upwards of an hour and a half at a time only to get up to go to another class, stiffness issues will undoubtedly follow. When sitting, hip flexors stiffen, which inhibits gluteal function. This should be taken into consideration when developing a quality warm-up program.

Warm up (10–12 minutes)
· 4 hurdle/dynamic routine continuous (twice each way or one time right and left)
· Right/left step over/inch worm
· Lateral over/high knee pull
· Backward over/lunge elbow to instep with knee extended
· Alternating over–single leg Romanian deadlift
· Lateral under–crossover walk
· Leg kick/quad pull
· Activation (1 X 10 each)
· T-spine mobility
· Glute bridge
· Lateral band
· Front/back monster band walk
· Shoulder PNF
· Band pull apart
Phase 1,Day 2
· Linear unilateral, lateral bilateral
· Short box single leg jump (2 X 3 each)
· Medicine ball, side tosses (2 X 15 each–kneel)
· Lateral jumps over short hurdles (3 X 6 each–stick landing)

All in all, the entire workout never takes more than an hour, which works perfectly for those who do this during physical education class and prior to school. The key to a successful youth training program is supervision. Fortunately, the athletes have set times and sometimes multiple coaches to observe technique, motivate, and ensure safety practices. A well-designed program can go a long way in terms of youth athletes having a good experience in sport competition. Seeing improvements is not only motivating but also goes a long way in building character and confidence, which are beneficial far beyond the spectrum of sports.

References
1. Zatsiorsky VM (1995) Science and Practice of Strength Training. Champaign, Illinois: Human Kinetics.
2. Francis Charlie (1987) The Charlie Francis Training System.
3. Rippetoe Mark (1997) Starting Strength. 2nd Edition. The Aasgaard Company

Training Young Athletes

Athletic performance enhancement is an exciting and dynamic field. More athletes are realizing at increasingly younger ages that simply playing their sport without training outside of their sport decreases their chances of successfully competing at the level they desire. I believe that this has also led to the unfortunate practice of early specialization. Young children who play one sport year round retard their overall athletic development and open themselves up to overuse injuries.
Research has demonstrated that athletes who specialize in one sport at an early age do tend to reach a higher level of achievement quicker than their multisport counterparts, but they also tend to peak at an earlier age while the multisport athletes tend to continue to progress longer. Some forward thinking colleges are considering this in their recruiting as they view the multisport athletes as having a bigger “upside” than their early specializing rivals. Just as in any other field, if you don’t spend at least some time looking ahead, you’re in danger of falling behind. I try to learn from as many sources as possible and have found that the more I learn the more I realize I don't know. I love seeing kids improve and appreciate the opportunity to work with kids who want to improve.Although I’m not medically trained, my number one priority in training young athletes is the physician’s creed: “First, do no harm.” In keeping with this philosophy, I try to make sure not to give advice or recommendations beyond my scope of practice. I also constantly attempt to search for and seek advice in regards to the safest and most effective training strategies and methods available. It’s been said that “the carpenter who follows everyone’s advice builds a crooked house,” so I’m careful to only make changes that I believe are sound, not follow the “newest fad.”With the priority of doing no harm, my goals in training a young athlete are to:

· Reduce the likelihood of injury
· Improve the general health of the athlete
· Improve the performance of the athlete

Fortunately, meeting the first goal tends to work toward meeting the second two. Meeting the third goal may or may not work toward meeting the first two. It’s possible to improve athletes’ performance in the short term but make them more susceptible to injury, thus severely hampering their performance in the long term. Just because an athlete is physically able to perform a movement or take a “supplement” doesn’t necessarily mean it’s appropriate for that athlete to do so. I attempt to follow an appropriate progression of training protocols and make sure that an athlete is ready to move on to the next progression before doing so. This is sometimes complicated when working with groups of athletes, and adjustments have to be made.

In order to reduce the likelihood of injury, I want to make sure that the musculoskeletal system is functioning the way it’s supposed to. I want the athlete’s joints to have an appropriate range of motion and the appropriate muscles to provide that motion. Some trainers/coaches specialize in corrective exercises and perform an assessment that can be very comprehensive in nature. This can be the best way to go when working with individual clients. When working with a team, you can often make assumptions (I know that this can be dangerous) about what the athletes will need based on their age, gender, and sport. Not just athletes but people in general tend to follow patterns as far as their biomechanical needs are concerned.

Joints have varying needs of stability or mobility. Mobility can be defined as the ability to move while stability is the ability to resist movement. As one goes up the body, there is an interesting pattern that can be observed. The feet tend to need more stability, the ankles more mobility, the knee more stability, the hips more mobility, the lumbar spine more stability, the thoracic spine more mobility, the scapula more stability, the glenohumeral joint more mobility, the elbows more stability, and the wrists more mobility. There has been some debate about the scapula needing more stability or mobility, but most of these debates center around stability versus mobility in different planes of movement. This debate can be made for every joint. For instance, we want our knees to be mobile in the sagittal plane (flex and extend), but we want our knees to be stable in the frontal plane (left to right movement) and transverse plane (rotation).Softball is probably the team sport with the highest likelihood of overuse injuries due to the extreme one-sidedness of the game. You throw with one hand and catch with the other. Most players swing the bat either left-handed or right-handed. You always run the bases in a counterclockwise direction (unless you forget to tag up). Because of this, most softball players are unequally developed when comparing their right and left sides. This is most glaring with pitchers. Everyone has seen pitchers whose pitching arm seems twice the size of their glove arm, but the differences can be more subtle. Softball players typically have differences in shoulder and hip rotation due to the mechanics involved in throwing a ball and swinging a bat. When you combine these differences with the postural problems that arise from everyday activities outside the world of sports, the potential for injury is increased. Teenagers who sit at a desk all day tend to have a kyphotic upper back (forward, slumped shoulders and sunken chest) and have hips with a limited range of motion.
You might wonder why the potential for injury is increased when a muscle has grown and gotten stronger in an athlete. Every movement that we make is accomplished by a muscle or group of muscles shortening or flexing and an antagonistic or opposing muscle or group of muscles lengthening or stretching. A muscle or group of muscles may grow or shorten in response to a certain activity in an effort to aid in that activity, and the muscles that are the antagonists for those muscles will lengthen or even shut off to aid in that same activity. However, there are many other movements that our body needs to perform other than swinging a bat or throwing a ball and what’s good for one movement may not be good for another.
Softball players will have injuries when they attempt to make movements that require their joints to move in ranges that they are unable to move in. They will also have injuries when they attempt to make movements that require their muscles to provide motion and stability when they are unable to. These failures of the joints and muscles are due to the adaptations that have been made from movements (like batting or throwing) made on a repetitive basis. We’ve talked about how joints have varying needs of mobility. When one joint does not have adequate mobility, the athlete tends to compensate by having the joints either above or below that joint move beyond their intended ranges while performing various athletic movements. This hypermobile joint will move beyond the range of movement in which it is designed to move and an injury will eventually result. Injuries will also occur simply because of overuse without adequate rest.Volleyball players can be at risk for overuse injuries. If volleyball players perform excessive repetitions of the same movements with the same side of the body, they can experience unequal development between their left and right sides. A volleyball player who serves and hits excessively with one hand can experience many of the same issues as a softball player because the movements are very similar. Thoracic spine mobility is a high priority for volleyball and softball players because if the thoracic spine doesn’t move enough the lumbar spine and/or the shoulder will have to move too much to perform the actions needed in these throwing or “overhead” sports. Volleyball players and female athletes in general can be at particular risk for knee injuries. Studies have shown that girls are four to eight times more likely to experience ACL injuries than boys. There are many different reasons theorized for this increased risk including the angle from the hip to the ankle, quadriceps dominance in females, decreased hip and ankle mobility, and menstruation. Decreasing quad dominance and increasing hip and ankle mobility are high priority items for me when I design programs for female athletes.
I consider there to be seven qualities necessary for athletic movement. These qualities are strength, speed, power, flexibility, endurance, coordination, and balance. Some would argue that power is simply a combination of speed and strength, but for training purposes, I believe it best to consider power a separate quality. Other qualities come into play when one considers athletic movements that add a visual component, but these qualities aren’t necessary for movement itself. Visual skills can be incorporated into training and visual skills training could be considered a separate field.
To accomplish my goals of reducing the likelihood of injury, improving general health, and improving performance, I need to do two things. First, I make sure the athlete is moving correctly, meaning that the joints are able to move in a proper range of motion, the correct muscles provide the force in the right sequence to move the joints, and the athlete knows the proper positions to put her joints in. Second, I make sure the athlete is able to make her joints move with the optimum amount of speed and force possible over the necessary length of time. The seven qualities necessary for athletic movement must be addressed to different degrees to make sure the athlete moves correctly with the optimum amount of speed and force over the necessary amount of time.I use four methods to ensure the athlete’s joints are able to move in a proper range of motion—self-myofasical release, self-joint mobilization, passive stretching, and dynamic mobility drills. I use these methods as part of training and movement preparation prior to any athletic movements. Muscle activation techniques are used to make sure the correct muscles provide the force for the movements and these are also used for movement preparation when needed. Movement coaching is used to make sure the athlete knows the proper position to put herself in and consists of demonstrating and explaining the proper technique when performing specific athletic movements such as jumping, landing, starting, and stopping.
Self-myofasical release is basically a form of self-massage that can be accomplished with a number of different implements. The foam roller is a personal favorite. Myofasical release is an attempt to change the quality of muscle tissue and would benefit many people, not just athletes. Self-joint mobilization techniques are attempts to alter the structures at the site of the joint. This alteration is accomplished by the athlete, not by any physical manipulation by the trainer. Passive stretching involves different techniques including static stretching and proprioceptive neural facilitation techniques. Passive stretching certainly has a place and is necessary at times but is not a technique I use as often as the other methods mentioned. It is an attempt to increase the passive length of a muscle.
Dynamic mobility drills are attempts to take the body through dynamic activities that increase the length of a muscle in movement. They can also increase strength, speed, coordination, balance, power, and endurance depending on the athlete’s condition. Muscle activation techniques are attempts to isolate and activate a muscle. This is done in an attempt to “wake up” the muscle so it will be used in other movements that don’t isolate the muscle in question. Some techniques are combinations of all of these methods. When used as movement preparation, all of these techniques serve to raise the core body temperature and prime the central nervous system to operate at peak efficiency. Most of these techniques have progressions that can be followed depending on the needs of the athlete.Of the seven qualities necessary for movement, strength is the base that all of the other qualities are built on. Without strength, movement is impossible. An optimum strength level is the number one priority. This doesn’t mean the strongest athlete will necessarily have more of the other six qualities, but without a certain level of strength, the other qualities can’t exist. Athletes have varying needs of strength depending on their sport. They require different levels of strength in different areas of their bodies. Athletes have different needs in all seven qualities dependent on their sport. The selection of the proper methods for training athletes can’t be accomplished without knowledge of the needs of the athlete within her sport. The proper selection of methods can contribute to developing all of the seven qualities concurrently.
Other methods may be used to focus specifically on certain qualities to the exclusion of the others. Certain methods are inappropriate to use with some athletes if the athlete isn’t physically ready to perform them. In an attempt to insure that I “do no harm,” I have to make sure a proper progression is followed. For example, power is a combination of strength and speed and can be developed with a number of different exercises and drills. An athlete is put at risk of injury when certain power specific exercises are used if she hasn’t developed an appropriate level of strength, speed, coordination, balance, and endurance. Program design is a complicated matter. Many factors must be considered, including but not limited to preparedness of the athlete, exercise selection, load selection, repetition range, set range, rest periods between sets and sessions, recovery methods, periodization methods, proper progressions of movements, and movement tempo.

(Don’t) Assume the Athletic Position

- stance (noun): the attitude or position of a standing person or animal, especially the position assumed by an athlete preparatory to action

— posture (noun): the position of the limbs or the carriage of the body as a whole

In all sports, the rudimentary beginnings of movement starts with a specific stance or posture. Whether it’s a defensive stance on the basketball court, a three-point stance for an offensive lineman, a batter preparing to hit a baseball, or a weightlifter preparing for his final clean and jerk, there is a proper starting position. All of these athletes must be taught the fundamentals of a proper stance to place them in a position to be successful. Everything successful in sports starts with a proper starting position. The simple foundation of all sports—the stance—is often times overlooked because of the ever increasing natural athleticism of athletes of this era.
In an athletic era where natural gifts supersede technique, many coaches and athletes have forgotten to focus on this piece of the puzzle that can help garner continued success and possibly reduce the chance of injury occurrence. By placing the athlete in a proper starting position, the athlete has the ability to move more efficiently with less effort, allowing him to accomplish a successful bout of exercise.

Developing a sound athletic position is no different. We must teach and direct our athletes to be able to start in a basic position from which all athletic movements can derive. It is important to note that although there is a developmental progression to establishing the athletic position, each individual athlete will look slightly different because of limb and torso difference. It is our goal for each athlete to understand the basic postural mechanics of the athletic position so that there will be an efficient transfer to strength training, running exercises, movement mechanics, and sport-specific position drills.

By establishing the athletic position, we can then begin to teach, instruct, and educate the athlete on the numerous movements and the techniques associated with all aspects of training. Each individual coach will have a slightly different version of what “their” athletic position technique will look like, but I assure you that we will all be very similar. When speaking of technique, many ask the question, “What protocols should we use when teaching our athletes?” There are numerous ways to answer this. Some may say “good technique is a form of movement that does not violate biological and mechanical laws” (Nytro). Others may use the old cookbook philosophy of what is written in a textbook or scientific data, bullet points, or checklist methods. I prefer to use a holistic approach including all of the above plus my own abilities as a former athlete as well as others who are professionals in specific fields of athleticism. Therefore, I can create my norms and know how to differentiate for the laws of individual differences and still stay within my protocols of success.

Before an athlete can begin to perfect his sports’ starting stance, it must be determined if he can properly align his body into the basic athletic position. As a coach whose main objective is to enhance the general physical preparedness of the athlete, it is my focus to help the athlete understand body positioning and awareness. If I can perform my duties well, the athlete will have the general athletic consciousness to apply the specific skills and body alignments needed to succeed in his individual sport of choice.
From the anatomical to athletic position Our first step is to put the athlete in our basic anatomical position.

Definition of anatomical position (1)—that of the body standing erect with palms turned forward, used as a position of reference in designating the site or direction of structures of the body (2); the erect position of the body with the face directed forward, the arms at the side, and the palms of the hands facing forward, used as a reference in describing the relation of body parts to another.

Many of us who have a general background in exercise science are familiar with the anatomical position of the body. This position is the basis of our ability to determine the movement planes and actions the body can perform. It is an extremely critical function when determining the way we will choose certain exercises to enhance overall athletic performance.
Planes of movement, gross movement patterns
Sagittal plane: Divides the body vertically into right and left parts. The main motions are flexion and extension. A major example is walking.
Frontal plane: Divides the body vertically into anterior/front and posterior/back parts. The main motions are abduction/adduction, side flexion, and inversion/eversion. A major example is a jumping jack.
Transverse plane: Divides the body horizontally into superior/upper and inferior/lower parts. The main motions are internal and external rotation, horizontal flexion and extension, and supination and pronation. A major example is throwing.
Note: All functional movement is tri-planar motion, meaning there is simultaneous movement of all three planes in one motion, making all functional movements three-dimensional.

Definition of athletic position—the position of the body in a flexed (bent) hip and knee position. The foot position is based on the athlete’s natural landing position. The head is set in a neutral/natural spine position (looking through the eyebrows). The shoulders are retracted back and the chest is expanded (proud position). The shoulders will be slightly over the toes. The arms are flexed at the elbow, and the hands are at the hip. The palms are neutral (facing hip) with the thumbs up. The lower back is isometrically contracted as is the abdominal region. The majority of the athlete’s weight is distributed on the mid-foot to the heels. This position is used as a general starting point for most athletic endeavors.

Most of us have assumed that all of our athletes can drop their hips and knees and correctly put themselves in a position of athletic success. Don’t!! With the aid of assessment protocols such as the functional movement screen and by establishing an orientation program for newcomers, you will find that many of your athletes can’t perform this simple act to your satisfaction when they enter your program. This article isn’t made to go into all of the reasons why. It is written to give you practical “in the gym information.
Stepping into the athletic position: Assessing the athlete’s natural starting position
We determine the athlete’s natural athletic position with a simple reaction test. Have the athlete stand on a line in a relaxed manner. When the athlete hears a whistle, he must immediately react to the verbal cue, set his athletic position, and hold. The only instruction given is, “At the sound of the whistle, set yourself in a basic athletic position.”

Generally, we see variations of these three positions:
· Knee bender: Knees pushed forward, heels off the ground, hips still in full extension
· Waist bender: Bent over at the waist, chest down, knees extended
· Hip and knee bender: Athlete naturally can assume a basic quarter squat position
Obviously the third one is the goal for each athlete. Any of these three positions has the ability to expose the athlete’s deficiencies in ankle, knee, hip, and shoulder mobility and flexibility as well as core strength and stability.

Teaching progression
Start position: Anatomical position
Feet: The foot position is set first. Instruct the athlete to do a very low intensity vertical jump. The natural landing position of the feet will be the starting point for the general athletic position.
Head: The head will be set in a natural or neutral position. As the athlete progresses to the bent knee and hip position, the head will continue to be in a neutral position in which the top of the head is in alignment with the spine. The eyes will be focused straight forward in the upright position and then looking through the brow and forehead in the bent knee and hip position.
Shoulders/chest: The shoulders will be retracted back and down, which will allow the chest to be expanded in what is called the “proud” position.
Arms and hands: The arms will begin extended with the palms facing away from the midline of the body. The athlete will then flex the elbow until the hands are at the hip and rotate the hand so the palms are facing the hip with the thumbs up.

Upper body set up
Low back and abdominal region: The low back is arched and isometrically contracted. The abdominal region is also contracted in a natural state. We won’t emphasize “belly button drawn in” or “stomach expanded” in the athletic position protocol.
Hips: The athlete will break at the hips first to begin the lower body descent. The athlete will push the hips back until the shoulders cover the toes.
Knees: The athlete will break after the hips and will continue to flex until the shoulders cover the toes.
Weight distribution: The weight will be distributed from the mid-foot to the heel to heel to begin. At this point, the athlete will be asked to push the feet through the floor to learn how to apply force into the ground.
Completion: When the athlete is in the athletic position, he is required to hold that position for a prescribed number of seconds in an isometrically contracted manner. This will give him his first experience in body awareness, coordination, and balance. See this video for more information.

This investment can’t be overlooked. With the amount of pre-existing back injuries and lack of mobility (to name a few) increasing each year in our incoming athletes, there is extreme merit in placing this important aspect of sport into your incoming freshman or beginner program.
See these examples of utilizing the athletic position into specific position stances for the sport of football: