Introduction 4 Philosophy 5 Coach/Player Expectations 6 On the Field 7 1st

Weightlifting and Offseason Program

The weight room is the great equalizer. In football it is no secret, typically the team that is faster and stronger wins. Football programs that are great in the weight room, that are committed to developing the mobility, flexibility, and power needed through the weight room are the programs that compete every single year and are tough to beat. 

Bottom line is if you want to be successful you must dominate in the weight room and in your off-season program EVERYDAY! My football programs will attack the weight room relentlessly. 
In my time at Clay, Matanzas, and Tavares High schools we have consistently seen gains of 30 - 40 lbs per 12 week cycle. Resulting in dedicated lifters who go from benching 150 lbs at the end of Freshman year to reaching close to 180-190 by midway through their sophomore year. 210-220 by end of sophomore year. 240-250 midway through junior year, 270-280 by end of junior year. By the time they reach their senior year the majority of our dedicated lifters are 300 lbs plus.

At Clay High School where the program has been implemented for a full four years and beyond we have seen results with as many as 22 athletes reach 300lbs+ on cleans and around 15 over 300 lbs+ on bench with the largest lifter reaching beyond 400 lbs on bench and 375 lbs on clean. 

The Westside method has been proven time and time again, it has been picked up and incorporated by top strength coaches such as University of Alabama's Scott Cochran. Every school that I have been to that has incorporated this program and has been dedicated to it and coaching with energy, tempo, and technique has seen these type of gains

​The Westside Barbell program is the brainchild of powerlifter and strength coach Louie Simmons. The program's principles are borrowing from Soviet and Bulgarian weightlifting training techniques and ingeniously adapted to powerlifting. The Westside Barbell philosophy challenges popular beliefs about the way we think, how a strength training program should be structured and implemented.

Westside Method

Westside Barbell in Columbus, Ohio is the only gym in the world to have two powerlifters with over 2700 pound totals, five over 2800 pounds, and one who has the biggest total of all time at 3005 lbs. Ever since incorporating Westside methods into our periodization and our workout programs our staffs have been able to produce consistent gains and lifters who never seem to plateau.

The method breaks down as follow. 

Overview

The Westside method incorporates 4 workouts per week, training:

• 
  Upper body and bench press related exercises in one day
  
• 
  Lower body, including squat and deadlift related exercises the another day.
  
• 
  Mobility and Technique work are repped in our program every single day. We have broken up advanced vs. intermediate lifters but the majority of the staffs I have been on have not been deep enough to accomplish this. 
  
• 
  In a football environment we do everything on the whistle, 15 seconds in between to change weights, and stress energy, excitement, and tempo. We do "sudden change" drills in order to be alert to any sudden changes that occur on the field. 
  
• 
  We will also assign a failure drill if an athlete fails or gives up on a weight to stress the importance of winning every rep. 
  

• 
  'Maximum Effort' method
  
  • 
    on the main lift which are trained with a large number of sets (8-12 sets) and very few reps (1-3 reps)
    
  • 
    progressing from light to a very heavy weight (90-100 1RM for the last 3-5 sets)
    
• 
  'Dynamic Effort' method
  
  • 
    on the main lift(s) which are trained with a large number of sets (9-12 sets) and very few reps (1-3 reps)
    
  • 
    utilizing 40-60% of 1RM in addition to 25-30%1RM load from accommodating resistance
    
    • 
      accommodation resistance involves increasing the resistance as the movement progresses towards completion by use of chains or anchored bands attached to the barbell.
      
• 
  Repetition method
  
  • 
    After the main lift(s) on both Maximum Effort and Dynamic Effort days, accessory exercises are performed with more conventional loads (Repetition Method) mostly utilizing 2-4 set of 6-10 repetitions.
    
  • 
    Every fourth week, 'Maximum Effort' work on main movements is replaced by 'Repetition' work for restoration